In black and white is how I remember Liverpool. Whether that is due to the fact that it was a dirty, smoke-begrimed city when I lived there as a child or that the collection of pictures I have from my childhood are mostly in black and white I don’t know, probably a mix of both.

• 

• 

• 

Today it’s a lot brighter, buildings have been cleaned or demolished and rebuilt, the waterfront area spruced up and tidied and a more colourfully clothed populace. But it’s not ‘my’ Liverpool any more.

With the newish shopping centres and street changes it’s not so easy to find my way around and, although I managed, there aren’t ferries across the Mersey any longer, just the odd one or two on tourist duties, blaring out the old songs on their PA systems. There is a general air of tiredness, mixed with building sites on every second corner (it was pubs on those corners when I was a child) and of course there are cars everywhere too.

• 

• 

• 

The Anglican cathedral has been finished, the Catholic one has been built and my old school is now a centre for the performing arts (LIPA). Speke Airport is now Liverpool John Lennon Airport and there are smart apartment blocks along the waterfront.

• 

• 

• 

I’ve been away a long time …