Secret Leeds
Regular price
€19.99
Leeds is the UK’s third largest city and is home to a community rich in history, ambition and achievement. As the financial, cultural and commercial heart of West Yorkshire, Leeds is a city essential to the global economic system. Although only a small borough for much of its existence, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Leeds became a key centre for the production and trading of wool. As the Industrial Revolution progressed, Leeds developed into a major industrial hub, extending its reach into engineering, printing, commerce, health and education. Iron foundries were among other industries of extreme importance. The city then expanded, absorbing many of the surrounding villages and townships to become the urban centre we see today.
Secret Leeds is a historical journey through this rapidly changing city, unearthing nuggets of its early history and spectacular development into the ‘Capital of the North’. The book reveals and unravels scores of fascinating and little-known details about Leeds that will intrigue and inform its many visitors as well as its current inhabitants, many of whom probably thought they knew it all.
John was born in London and has spent much of his life working there until his job at the Department of Health was relocated to Leeds. He spent the last eight years of his working life in Leeds. He has written numerous short stories and three novels and had two short novels published. He currently edits a journal for the American Stamp Club of Great Britain. He belongs to a local writing group based in Pontefract. He has two grown-up daughters – one lives in Leeds the other in Spain. David Marsh works at the University of Leeds library. In his spare time he writes short stories and articles for magazines. David is currently working on his first novel. Christopher Allen has lived in Leeds for most of his adult life and has written for The Leeds Guide, The Dalesman and BBC History Magazine – specialising in obscure areas of history and culture, often writing in collaboration with his wife Karen, a historian and educator. Christopher also writes fiction and drama. His play ‘Qasibo’ was staged at Bradford Playhouse whilst another piece ‘Love Games’ was put on at The Carriageworks Theatre, Leeds. Together with another writing partner, Alan Wheeldon, Chris founded the Leeds Gargoyle – a magazine of alternative culture and strange fiction – which gathered a cult following in the city. He is currently working on “Quintilian’s”, a novel set in a Victorian department store.