Chronicling the story of a city is never easy - but this encyclopaedia of Leeds and its achievements is as good as it gets for this type of book.
Mick McCann is an Armley lad who lives, breathes and eats Leeds and his enthusiasm for the city is evident in the compendium of facts that is How Leeds Changed the World.
Many Leeds guide books are essentially generic reproductions of each other, but what makes this book unique is its very 'Leedsness', if there is such a word. Mick writes as a Leeds lad in an authentic 'Loiner' voice, and this lends a lot of credibility to it.
The easiest way for me to describe this book is to quote the product description on Amazon:
"Guess which British city spawned the current three most successful high street chains in the UK?"The world's first functioning locomotive, when you erase pencil with a rubber, the mapping of your DNA, the world's first disco, Britain's first flying plane and kidney dialysis, lads mags, Chick Lit, the clinical thermometer, every time you have a can of pop, the telescopic sight, the world's most prolific stuntman, the world's first iron framed building - the 'grandfather of skyscrapers', Occupational Medicine, our ability to calculate the size and distance of planets, all are rooted in Leeds.
"Many people know that adopted son of Leeds Louis Le Prince filmed the world's first moving pictures in Leeds, but what about the Leeds lad who created the world's second film using mill technology? If money-men hadn't thought he was crazy and his ideas of films 'wild and ridiculous' he could have been the first by some way.
"I know it's part of our Leedsness to keep our feet on the ground, not show off, get ideas above our station or blow our own trumpet but I'm blowing our trumpet hard here. I'm blowing it loud and proud."
There's a veritable feast of little-known information contained in the book. A wealth of stuff on things like the history of Leeds' cinemas - I had no idea that Leeds can lay claim to around 50 cinemas during the past century. Many I never knew existed and will now look at the buildings in a different light.
The usual historical suspects such as Matthew Murray and more modern entries such as Key Mellor all make an appearance - and there are literally hundreds of other Leeds people included, many of whom are real revelations.
It's great to see things like the Middleton Railway being celebrated. Did you know it was the oldest working railway in Britain? We really don't make enough of the fact that these hidden gems are on our doorstep - the powers that be are too busy prattling on about the Victoria Quarter and Leeds Loves Shopping, while this gem of 'proper' Leeds goes virtually unmentioned.
Alright, some of the entries are a bit tenuous - TV sitcom Rising Damp is included because at was produced by Leeds-based YTV, that said, I didn't know Rigsby was a Leeds United fan! But this is a very minor criticism indeed.
I'm not usually one for encyclopaedias, but this is indispensible is you love Leeds as much as I do.
Guest blogger Linda Pantry lives in North Leeds and is a book fanatic. She has had some of her work published.
