Malcolm Lowry described Liverpool as 'that terrible city whose main street is the ocean'. Born on the Wirral side of the river Mersey, Lowry's relationship to the Merseyside of his youth informs all of his writing and Liverpool itself continued to hold tremendous significance for him, even though he never returned. Published in conjunction with a festival and exhibition at Liverpool's Bluecoat arts centre celebrating Lowry's centenary, this beautifully produced book showcases a variety of creative and critical approaches to Lowry and his work, and includes twelve specially commissioned pieces...

Does 3am represent the current zeitgeist? At this dread hour, there's doubt that the day will ever come, a sense of reaching the nadir, of being in a dark place. The mind falters and slides. It's a time for nightmares, ghouls and nocturnal creatures, of loneliness and death. It's the shadow side of our daylight existence, lawless and demonic. But 3am is also a time for refuge and release, for dreams and adventure, creativity and imagination.
This book accompanies an exhibition of the same name, curated by Angela Kingston, and features work by over 20 contemporary artists who step into the...

An Open Access edition of this book will be available on the Liverpool University Press website and the OAPEN library on publication. 'Who ever thought they would one day be able to read Malcolm Lowry's fabled novel of the 1930s and 40s, In Ballast to the White Sea? Lord knows, I didn't' - Michael Hofmann, TLS This book breaks new ground in studies of the British novelist Malcolm Lowry (1909-57), as the first collection of new essays produced in response to the publication in 2014 of a scholarly edition of Lowry's 'lost' novel, In Ballast to the White Sea. In their...