Category:Writers on Chester

This is a category for articles on writers who have written books about Chester. It is intended for use where it is possible to add a link to their actual text/content. The format of each article (see for example Seacome) is a short description of the life of the person, followed by a list of their works relating to Chester and then any links to the text of these. This is intended to be used when quoting an author, as in the following example:

Borrow (1862) writes:


 * Chester is an ancient town with walls and gates, a prison called a castle, built on the site of an ancient keep, an unpretending-looking red sandstone cathedral, two or three handsome churches, several good streets, and certain curious places called rows. 

Please DO NOT upload "e-books" as files, but link to them externally. To simply add a link to a book without adding a page about the author use the Books page.

Guidebooks for Chester
One consequence of the growth of tourism was the proliferation of guidebooks on Chester. The ealiest of these appears to be that of Broster and later books inclide Pigot, Seacome, Batenham, Hemingway and Hughes. Many of these guides were produced by local booksellers and follow an almost standard pattern: disparaging remarks about earlier guides followed by a text which largely copies from the earlier works - sometimes word for word. An example of the former is found in Hughes description of Bishop Lloyd's House. In his attack on earlier "Guide-makers" he writes of the carvings on the house:


 * "Ridiculous have been some of the attempts of "Local Guide-makers" to arrive at the real meaning of this design some have gravely set it down as the "Flight into Egypt" while another and later unfortunate has sapiently pronounced it to be "Susannah and the Elders". "

Errors made in earlier works are duplicated in later ones, thus, once it had been written that the Recorders Steps were built for Roger Comberbach this was repeated in later works, and eventually even engraved on a stone plaque by the steps, which dates the steps from 1700. In fact, the steps date from after Comberbach's death in 1719.

Many other writers on Chester are listed on the Books page, these are the major ones where some brief background may be of interest.

Sources and Links

 * "Imagining Roman Britain: Victorian Responses to a Roman Past" (Virginia Hoselitz)