A book charting a city’s history using stories and photographs from the newspapers that serve it has been produced by a regional journalist.

Newcastle In The Headlines shows the city through the ages, with help from the archives of city titles The Chronicle, The Journal and the Sunday Sun.

The trio are run by Trinity Mirror division ncjMedia, whose nostalgia editor Dave Morton was approached to write the book by Amberley Publishing.

The book, pictured below, will be the first in a series which documents the histories of other cities which are served by Trinity Mirror-owned newspapers – including Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester and Liverpool.

The series has come about after Amberley struck a deal with Trinity Mirror to use its archives for the project.

Newcastle In The Headlines begins with the death of Queen Victoria and the reaction in the city in 1901, and covers the 20th century as well as more up-to-date events, using stories and pictures published on ncjMedia’s ChronicleLive website.

Said Dave: “The book was something I worked on at home, but was heavily linked to my job as nostalgia editor at ncjMedia.

“It’s a job, as a history graduate and life-long history anorak, which is a real daily labour of love.”

The book also contains stories on everything from World War I and the 1984-85 miners strike, to 1980s sweets and
Beatlemania at Newcastle City Hall.

Dave has now been given the go ahead from titles’ editor-in-chief Darren Thwaites to begin another book on the history of Newcastle United Football Club using the papers’ archive material.

Dave added: “There’s an especially strong interest in Newcastle United nostalgia; pop and rock nostalgia also goes down well; and even seemingly banal subject matter such as long-lost bus stations or cinemas attracts big audiences.

“We have a brilliant archive of pictures and stories, just waiting to be commercially exploited – not just traditional, older 20th century material – but 1970s, 1980s, and even 1990s and noughties as well.

“I would urge other newspapers to dust off their archives and publish it afresh online and in print. Hopefully, the book will go down well.”