Biography.
JP Maxwell is a novelist, filmmaker and senior lecturer in Digital Writing at LJMU. He has produced three feature films, receiving network broadcasts on BBC Television and official selection at major film festivals such as Karlovy Vary and BFI Times London.
Published by BK Fiction in July 2023, his latest work is the novel ‘Water Street’, the first book in a series of historical thrillers set in mid-19th Century Liverpool, regarding the city’s seismic relationship with the United States and Ireland in those years.
Press – ‘Reimagining Liverpool and The American Civil War.’
Using family and public archive images and accounts, psychogeographic reporting and 3D modelling, Maxwell has recreated mid-19th century Liverpool across media in order to research, reimagine and market his book Water Street. In 1863, the city was a rich metropolis at loggerheads with the United States Government over the illegal financing and construction of Confederate Navy vessels at Cammell Laird and the groundswell of support for the South in the chambers of banking and the Cotton Exchange. Union and Confederate spies stalked each other across town, vying for favour and influence of rich and powerful denizens. Four thousand miles from the theatre of conflict, it may seem bizarre but the city had a crucial influence on the fate of America.
But fifteen years earlier, the horror of the Great Hunger was at its peak as millions were forced out of Ireland or perished. Liverpool’s population shot up in this decade and the city became more Irish than English with the new influx. Water Street collides the aftermath with another world-changing event. Added to a heady stew of literary fiction and historical thriller are the birth of the Fenian movement and the strangest recruitment of Irish soldiers in history.
This book and planned novels open up a fictional account of an overlooked chapter in history which has waned in the collective consciousness, concurrent with the decline of wealth and influence of the city. As EL Doctorow said, ‘The historian will tell you what happened. The novelist will tell you what it felt like.’ This underscores the central research aim of Water Street; to explore in unprecedented depth Liverpool’s gargantuan influence upon the Americas using an immersive fictional text and accompanying media, from documentary vlogs to audio books and short, animated trailers.
BLURB
The American Civil War comes to the British Empire's second city and the world's richest port.
Confederate Commander Banastre X. Dunwoody has a plan to turn the conflict by securing advanced warships, but the U.S. Government is one step ahead of him. It seeks to sabotage his efforts through its covert agent - Harriet Dunwoody - Banastre's pregnant wife.
Alongside her undercover partner Conté, Harriet discovers that Banastre has plans to do more than building ships; he has a scheme that could very well draw Britain into the war.
As Gettysburg looms an ocean away, there's another battle to be won and lost. The fate of the USA and the City of Liverpool rests upon it.
Testimonials
'A brilliant story' - David Morrissey (The Walking Dead, Captain Corelli)
'A gripping adventure, beautifully written' - Jeff Young (Costa Award nominee)
'A strapping ride through history' - Caroline Cauchi (Mrs Van Gogh)
Available at all good book shops and Amazon via https://amzn.eu/d/hqUrAMl
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