18 compelling true stories from Manchester's long and often turbulent history. Manchester is one of the most dynamic cities in Britain and its long and turbulent history has produced a wealth of dramatic stories. This unique collection by David Clayton, a proud Mancunian, captures the best of them. The variety is impressive. There are the famous people. From the world of entertainment we have Pat Phoenix, the biggest star on television, and Bernard Manning, Britain's most popular, and most controversial, comedian. Manchester has also had its fair share of notable figures from the arts, not least the People's Painter, LS Lowry, and the Rusholme man who single-handedly invented modern cricket writing, Neville Cardus. There is also an Oscar-winning actor, Robert Donat, who hailed from Withington, while from the sporting arena Collyhurst boxer Jackie Brown became the city's first world champion. Manchester, the greatest industrial city in the world, has had a plethora of notable achievements, most notably the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal, one of the wonders of the Victorian age. Many more great ventures sprang up, including Belle Vue, known with some justification as the Showground of the World. The city had its own highly successful film studios, run by the Blakeley family and known as Jollywood. For decades a centre of pop excellence, Manchester conquered America in 1965 with three of its bands occupying the top spots in the Stateside charts. Manchester has also been home to any number of quirky pubs, not least Tommy Ducks. We must not ignore the disasters: the Woolworth's fire; the Irk Valley train crash; the runway tragedy at Manchester Airport; the horrors of Munich and its effect on the city. The greatest devastation however was caused by Hitler's Christmas Blitz of 1940