crossing the river

merseyside life in the 1960s
Recollections in poetry of childhood in Merseyside during the 1950s and 60s.
Crossing the river is about growing up on Merseyside during the 60s when Liverpool exploded with the music of the Beatles and the Mersey Sound as well as the poems of Roger McGough, Adrien Henry and Brian Patten. It remembers the excitement of the ferry crossing from Birkenhead when ocean-going liners were moored by the landing stage at Liverpool from where the walk led to the shops and cafes that no longer exist. The poems also explore the childhood and teenage experience of games, rites of passage and a life spent outdoors before television and on-screen activities kept young people indoors. It is about Liverpool, but seen from the perspective of the Wirral standing between two rivers and gazing at the big city with its world of excitement just a train or ferry ride away.