Preface

Summary

It is difficult for a celebration volume not be pretentious. Of course we stand on the shoulders of those who went before us, so Let Us Praise Famous Men. But we need not be too solemn about it. Too much of a good thing can be not only unconvincing but unreadable. To commend the hundred years of the Faculty of Arts at Liverpool University - like the university's own centenary the exact date chosen for celebration is only one of several available, depending on the interpretation of the founding date - is very ‘meet, right and our bounden duty’, to quote the Prayer Book. Yet those touched by the claims of academia - and all the contributors to this volume are, or were, members of the university, staff or students - recognise other duties, including discrimination and truth. The volume therefore mixes a variety of testimonies, of varying solemnity and approach, and is organised to express this variety.

It begins with reminiscences, first those of former students, the contributors ranging in age from the early twenties to four score years and ten. The reminiscences are overwhelmingly upbeat, which appears to be not entirely due to nostalgia. In response to an invitation to all former Arts students still in contact with the university, some thirty sent in their reminiscences, and extracts from these have been edited, together with a few earlier reminiscences, to provide a panorama of student life over ten decades. Reminiscences of a smaller number of former staff follow.