David Charters

Obituary: Adrian Mitchell

HE WAS one of those idealistic young men, who hoped that you could shame tyrants with mockery and disembowel bombs with words.Read

‘AH,” SAID the Philosopher as he lowered his gangling frame gingerly on to a seat by the old bandstand in the marble cafe. Outside, the feet of the busy paced to work amid a flurry of seasonal salutations. I sat on my chair and waited.

“Ah,” repeated the Philosopher and his strong fingers of long memory squeezed the curvaceous belly on a plastic bottle to propel a jet of brown sauce over the breakfast laid before him – the crisp curls of bacon, the welcoming sunrise of the fried egg, the hill of beans, the swollen sausage, the game mushrooms and the Italian tomatoes.Read

Congregation’s gift of hope

Despite the shopping frenzy, silly hats, office parties and gloomy news, a true Christmas story has been unfolding in an unlikely place. David Charters reportsRead

Obituary: Vince Karalius

HE WAS not a chap you’d challenge to a bout of arm wrestling, if his 14 stone of whalebone endurance, muscle and blood perched on the stool opposite you in the pub.Read

Obituary: Davey Graham

HE WAS a diamond, the real stone, the Midnight Man; a British folk musician who lived a life which stirred the juices of countless thousands of bedsit “hobos”.Read

‘LOOK, Dad,” said the boy smiling proudly into the glass in the bathroom, as he lifted his left arm to show a few dark hairs breaking like heralds from their lairs.

For a few moments, the father and son stood together before the mirror of time, admiring the hairs; and then I stepped back from the brooding reflection, knowing that something had changed forever. One man was coming, the other was going, ever so slowly, though only sympathetic eyes would have noticed this on that stooped night.Read

Obituary: Kathy Staff

SHE would probably not have passed the auditions for Cleopatra or Juliet, but the God-respecting girl, introduced to the world on Potato Pie Day, instinctively understood all the nuances of frilly curtains and lacy table-cloths, making her the perfect actress to play the northern woman – that stereotype from the music-halls, which found its full incarnation in the generous bosoms and hairnet of Ena Sharples (Violent Carson) on Coronation Street.Read

A-Z of Merseyside part 1: Revealing the magic of Merseyside

IT'S not all Liver Birds, Beatles, comics, listed buildings and footballers, you know. Merseyside is full of quirks, mysticism and secrets, as we will reveal in our three-day A to Z series.Read

Obituary: Elmer Valentine

HIS name would raise the lids on the weary, bloodshot peepers of any crime writer – like the rasp of a match on a sidewalk wall.Read

A thousand voices

Being the voice of one of Britain’s best-loved sagas has helped a Liverpool actress nip in just ahead of Dame Judi Dench in the billing. David Charters reportsRead

Obituary: Beverly Garland

WHEN a B movie actress fights a giant cucumber, the student of cinematography is eager to know the outcome.Read

Obituary: Bob Spiers

HE HAD the puckered chin, wide lips and loose jowls of a man whose face was often stretched by laughter.Read

Obituary: Oliver Postgate

LIKE many chaps, who step uneasily in the real world, the bespectacled man of rather crumpled bearing, who favoured eccentrically-coloured pullovers, felt strongly about those allowed to enter his world.Read

From disaster area to a new paradise

Families who lost their homes and loved ones in the Boxing Day tsunami are settling in a new village, thanks to people from our region. David Charters reportsRead

David Charters: Fine rain is the wettest wet

"WETTING rain,” my late mother said, in tones still gently tickled by the tea-and-bun rooms of her Glasgow girlhood, as a thin net of drizzle veiled our pale faces – gloomily turned to the bright-eyed cars, which skimmed the kerb beneath the street lamp where we waited, hopping back and forth in clockwork rhythm, hoping the shop opposite would remain open.Read

Obituary: Nina Foch

IT IS a curious fact that Hollywood Draculas always favoured the blood of lovely women. A lady could have the most nourishing eight pints in the world pumping through her veins, but the old Count’s fangs were only for those with beautifully sculpted necks.Read

Obituary: Dudley Savage

IN THE grand old days when cinemas were the palaces of sweethearts, he was the master rising from the pit to squeeze mighty melodies out of an organ decorated in the high art deco style and fitted with pipes powerful enough to tremble a cathedral.Read

Friends in need help break taboos

An open day at a Liverpool centre will help us understand how people overcome brain injuries and neurological conditions to live full and rewarding lives. David Charters reportsRead

Obituary: Odetta

IN TRUTH, the others – Dylan, Joan Baez and their raggle-taggle followers – were frail reeds compared to the big lady, whose voice, switching from the mighty to the soothing, was seeded in poverty and swelled with the sorrows and pride of an oppressed people.Read

Listen to John Lennon’s vision of heaven

AS the world prepares to mark the 28th anniversary of John Lennon’s death next Monday, fans can hear extracts from his ‘lost’ peace interview. David Charters reportsRead

David Charters

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