Forget everything you’ve heard about Manchester, and read what it was like to live there from those that know it best. Mancunians: where do we start, where do I begin? is a portrayal of the industrial city on the cusp of irreversible change.

At the turn of the century, Manchester was in upheaval. The devastation of the IRA bomb saw council leaders try to push the city into the future as gang wars repeated the violence of the past. Musicians tried to come from under Oasis’s shadow, while the local population tried to push past the stereotypes. Mancunians is the story of those that didn’t fit the typecast: the musicians of colour, the football fans not into prawn sandwiches, the Mancunians who didn’t wear parkas, the frustrated police figures, the optimistic developers, the ambitious artists, the drinkers, the dealers, the drug takers and a young lad trying to negotiate his way amongst the chaos.

Through a mixture of memoir and interviews with well-known Mancunians such as Guy Garvey, Rowetta, Badly Drawn Boy and Stan Chow, combined with the unheard voices of the population, David Scott portrays the city in a way never seen before.

Mancunians: where do we start, where do I begin? is the authentic account of Manchester at the turn of the Millennium. – .