I started working in Liverpool in 1974 having moved up from London a couple of years earlier - ironically to find work after graduating as a Chemist. I knew little about Liverpool then apart from the "Merseybeat" of my teens - with the Beatles and Gerry and the Pacemakers at the centre; the fantastically successful Liverpool football team and the legend that was Bill Shankly; the famous River Mersey under which I travelled daily from the "posh" Wirral; the Dock strikes of the 1960's.

What I discovered from my first day was a fantastic group of very friendly people with a great sense of humour and who loved talking: as a Londoner with roots in the East End I felt we had a bond. Whether the Liverpudlians with whom I worked felt the same about me I never really knew because I was "Management" and so I was not to be fully trusted as so much industrial strife in the area had been caused by poor management and bad industrial relations. I gradually learnt about the wrong-doings of the past - something which this "Southerner" had never been taught at school

Early memories from working in a small factory on Naylor Street were being asked if I was Protestant or Catholic (my answer of "Church of England" seemed to confuse the enquirer and me!); being called a "woolyback" by a girl who I don't think had ever travelled more than 2 miles from home and who came from an ENORMOUS family with a father who was one of 14 and mother who was one of 18; the people who were generous to a fault and lived for today and who could never resist a "bargain" being sold from a back of a van that had just arrived with its cargo of "misplaced items" from the Docks!

We suffered through the Thatcher Years as unemployment rose to unacceptable levels not just on Merseyside but throughout the UK. In the Vauxhall area of Liverpool the male unemployment rose to 80% with its associated social problems. But those around me kept that sense of humour that is endemic in the area. Gradually people took notice of the plight of Liverpool - particularly after the Toxteth riots - and Michael Haseltine was sent to see what could be done to improve the area.

Slowly, slowly changes started to happen. We had the Garden Festival (what a shame better use could not be made of the area afterwards) and, instead of bulldozing the South Docks, refurbishment took place which became the foundation of the Albert Dock area that we know today. We had a new "Protestant" Bishop of Liverpool, David Sheppard, and he "crossed the divide" and formed a strong friendship with the Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool, Derek Worlock. Together - and with those influential people in the area who also cared so much for the city and the people in it - they addressed many of the social inequalities and religious tensions that had hampered progress. The Tenements and sub-standard housing was gradually replaced by housing projects where people could again take pride in their community instead of the earlier tendency in the 1960's to ship them out to new, souless Estates in Kirkby and Runcorn. Students and Student Accommodation has been another source of regeneration for the inner city bringing life - and money - into many forner blighted areas

The grand heritage of Liverpool - both from its days as one of the shipping powerhouses of the world and more recently as the home of the Beatles - started to attract many visitors from all over the world - although many parts of the city still looked very tired. The joy in the City when Liverpool was appointed "European Capital of Culture" for 2008 was immense and the transformation that has taken place in the last couple of years has rightly seen the number of tourists to the area increase dramatically. This year we have had many friends and family visit us and I have taken great pride in showing them around my adopted City and letting them meet those friendly, humourous, talkative people that I have come to know and love over the 34 years that I have been here. All have been very impressed and want to return. Thank you Liverpool!