A Glittering Malice

This is about life on a council estate in the county borough of Bootle in North Liverpool during the 1960s-1970s with the spectre of penury looming heavily over the family home.

The love of grandparents and the memories that last a life time of going abroad to the Isle of Man to the struggles of teenage years and family breakdown. Of best friends, of street football games, adventures far and wide.

Of a failed eleven plus, of paper rounds and school days and corporal punishment meted out on a daily basis. Through the violence and racism of the late 1960s early 1970s and adolescence.

Tales of building work and trade union awareness, unemployment and nearly thirty years of political representation.

Of the legal profession and mental health services, a life so varied and one of fighting social injustice and racism, from a lowly apprentice to a first citizen of a metropolitan authority.