Manchester Christmas

"Sweet, romantic, and suspenseful, Manchester Christmas is an unexpected gift." --Richard Paul Evans #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of The Christmas Box A young writer is drawn to a small New England town in search of meaning for her life. Soon, she encounters kindness, romance, and is pulled into a mystery centered on an old, abandoned church and the death of a special girl. Are the images that only she can see in the church's stained-glass windows a warning, or is someone trying to reach her, to help heal this broken community? Manchester Christmas illustrates how God often uses the most unlikely among us to spread grace and healing in a wounded world. Full of love, hope, and forgiveness, this debut novel from an Emmy-winning writer will touch your heart and have you longing for Christmas in Manchester.

Focuses on the variety and independence of pantomime in the provinces, especially Nottingham, Birmingham, and Manchester. Explores official and local censorship and the relationships between local theaters, managers, authors and audiences.

The establishment of the Roman fort of Mamucium in AD79 is the first known record of any military construction, or presence, in the area that is now the Castlefield district of the city. The Roman auxiliary units posted here used the fort as a garrison, located at Mamucium for the purpose of protecting the Roman road from Chester (Deva Victrix) to York (Eboracum). The site was previously occupied, as a defensive hill fort, by the ancient Britons, or Brigantes, who were native to the area.The next epoch of military activity at Manchester occurred in the Civil War and the Siege of Manchester in 1642. Manchesters declaration as a Parliamentarian town had far-reaching consequences, in terms of its military legacy, on the voting rights of Mancunians. Upon his restoration Charles II removed Manchesters two MPs from Parliament and Manchester was not to receive any political representation until the Reform Act of 1832.The Peterloo Massacre, of August 1819, was the scene of a mass rally brought about by a desire to repeal the Corn Laws, introduce universal suffrage and reform other repressive legislation. The cavalry charge which resulted in the deaths of an estimated eighteen innocent protesters and the wounding of over 500, took place at St. Peters Field (now Square) in the heart of the city. Its legacy resulted in the establishment of the Manchester Guardian and the rise of radical freethinking in the city, not always welcomed by those in authority.Both World Wars have had a profound influence on the city. The establishment of the Manchester Regiment is detailed and later the Manchester Pals are recalled through the pages of the local press. Heaton Park became their base, whilst General Kitchener visited the city, in order to boost recruitment. Later the Luftwaffes bombing campaign of December 1940, the Manchester Blitz, left the city with a legacy that has changed it beyond all recognition into the twenty-first century.

A new assessment of the life of one of the most famous and controversial airmen of the Second World War, this book covers Guy Gibson's sometimes troubled upbringing and the impact on him of his time at St Edward's School, Oxford. In particular, the story of his career in the RAF is relayed, including his stunning leadership achievement in creating No 617 Squadron and leading its attack on the dams of western Germany. The much-discussed circumstances of his unnecessary death and the theories, which have grown up around it are examined, as well as his legacy—he remains a great British hero almost 70 years after his death in a world utterly different to the one he knew.

Moving beyond the (now somewhat tired) debates about secularization as paradigm, theory, or master narrative, Periodizing Secularization focuses upon the empirical evidence for secularization, viewed in its descriptive sense as the waning social influence of religion, in Britain. Particular emphasis is attached to the two key performance indicators of religious allegiance and churchgoing, each subsuming several sub-indicators, between 1880 and 1945, including the first substantive account of secularization during the fin de siècle. A wide range of primary sources is deployed, many of them relatively or entirely unknown, and with due regard to their methodological and interpretative challenges. On the back of them, a cross-cutting statistical measure of 'active church adherence' is devised, which clearly shows how secularization has been a reality and a gradual, not revolutionary, process. The most likely causes of secularization were an incremental demise of a Sabbatarian culture (coupled with the associated emergence of new leisure opportunities and transport links) and of religious socialization (in the church, at home, and in the school). The analysis is also extended backwards, to include a summary of developments during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries; and laterally, to incorporate a preliminary evaluation of a six-dimensional model of 'diffusive religion', demonstrating that these alternative performance indicators have hitherto failed to prove that secularization has not occurred. The book is designed as a prequel to the author's previous volumes on the chronology of British secularization - Britain's Last Religious Revival? (2015) and Secularization in the Long 1960s (2017). Together, they offer a holistic picture of religious transformation in Britain during the key secularizing century of 1880-1980.