News in Heswall

Plenty of fresh air was the order of the day

Old pictures of the Cleaver Sanatorium in Heswall are a reminder that we are no strangers to a pandemic.

In 1902, when the hospital was opened thanks to the efforts of Liverpool Parish, West Derby Union and Toxteth Park Township, its main mission was to treat children suffering from tuberculosis, known back then as consumption because symptoms included weight loss, and nowadays as TB for short.

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Malcolm Lowry

Malcolm Lowry is one of Wirral's greatest gifts to our literature and Under the Volcano is his masterpiece, a beast of a book, big, complex, difficult, and often written in a style that owes more to poetry than it does to prose. It is not easy to follow or understand, but then neither is the world. Lowry himself stated that to feel its full imaginative force the novel had to be read two or three times.

In many ways Under the Volcano resembles Herman Melville's Moby Dick and Lowry was much influenced by the American. They are books that dared to be different and daunting, and yet managed to become massively popular classics despite being met with confusion and criticism when first revealed to the world.

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Saint Valentine as imagined in stained glass.

Valentine's Day, our annual celebration of love and romance - and a bonanza for greeting card manufacturers, florists and chocolate manufacturers - is rooted in fact and legend that are rather less joyful than the atmosphere February 14th is meant to encourage.

The Roman Catholic faith recognises at least three different saints going by the name Valentine, or Valentinus, all of whom met premature ends as martyrs.

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