AN AUTHOR has written a book about the rise and fall of working mens club, with a whole chapter on Coventry.
Neil Anderson’s new book, ‘Dirty Stop Out’s Guide to Working Men’s Clubs’ celebrated the heyday of the clubs that helped create some of the UK’s biggest light entertainment stars of the era.
The book talks about the start of the clubs, and why the Victorian minister orignially invented them – it goes on to talk about what they became and the rise of popularity in the 1970s.
Coventry Working Men’s Club was the first venue of its kind to receive a visit from the Queen, who visited as part of her Silver Jubilee celebrations in July 1977.
Neil said: “I think it’s vital that this massive part of British working class history is celebrated and preserved.
“I had the pleasure of interviewing scores of entertainers, patrons, committee members, and more for the book, and it made me realise just how little is left of the movement today.
“By the 1970s it’s fair to say the movement was probably shifting more beer per week than half the pubs in the UK.”
Coventry has its own chapter in the book with contributions from the city-born author Ruth Cherrington.
