This is a new direction for me, sort of. Certainly the book looks different but I’ve always been a storyteller and this book continues that passion.

Over the last 12 months I’ve been gathering Manchester stories in words and sketches. Eleven of those stories are published over 160 pages in this first volume of what I’ve pretentiously entitled Len Grant’s Manchester.

They are just random stories of people and places that interest me. If I find them interesting I’m guessing some other people will too.

For one of those stories I’ve drawn all of the city’s Grade 1 listed buildings and then sat down with city guide Emma Fox who has added a fascinating commentary to each. In another stories I’ve documented the wonderful community cycle café that is Station South in Levenshulme; made ink sketches of the Mancunian Way, and even drawn the goings-on on Manchester’s Market Street.

There’s a smattering of autobiography in here too. One story is a series of bike trips to draw the places in Gorton and Cheetham Hill where my grandparents would have knocked around as teenagers.

Then there’s the section on choirs. I’ve drawn four different choirs around the city and interviewed the singers that get so much out of it. I can’t sing to save my life but I’ve really enjoyed spending time listening to others.

This new book is a departure from what I call my ‘neighbourhood sketchbooks’ of recent years. In 2018 I published a book about Rusholme, and later another about Burton Road in south Manchester. That was followed in 2024 with a book about the Northern Quarter and, last year, by the hugely-popular Chorlton Sketchbook.

160 pages, softback
Published by Len Grant Books
ISBN 978-1-9164873-5-2
Click here to order Len Grant’s Manchester Volume 1 for £19.95 plus postage.