Raven Books logo
Anvil Press (which also operated under the names Raven Books, Anvil Origination, Optica, Profile, and Outline) was a business partnership formed in 1970 by Susan P. Place and Ben Coker.
Susan Place was the lead editor. Later, she became known as Susan Hanley-Place, MBE, and Chief Executive of the Mersey Heritage Trust.
Anvil Press[]
The company was the publisher and printer for works of local poets, Liverpool University and Liverpool Polytechnic (later known as Liverpool John Moores University) handbooks and student union promotional materials, as well as posters and fliers for entertainment events and property sales.
Over the years, the company changed addresses quite frequently around Liverpool:
- c52 The Temple, 24 Dale Street
- L2 5RL
- tel: 051-236-7547
- Circa 1975
- 5 Cases Street
- L1 1HW
- tel: 051-708-0201
- Circa 1977
- 89 Victoria Street
- L1 6DD
- tel: 051-708-0201
- 17 Duke Street
- L1 5AP
- tel: 051-708-0201
Anvil Press Works of Brian Jacques[]
All of Brian Jacques' pre-Redwall poetry was published by Raven Books. This included:
- Get Yer Wack: A Liverpool Anthology (1971) (as J B Jaques)
- Yennoworrameanlike (1972) (as J. B. Jacques)
- According to Jacques: A Mersey Bible (1975)
- Scouse with the Lid Off (1977)
- Jakestown: My Liverpool (1979)
- Brian Jacques Meets Paddy Kelly: Stories from the BBC Radio Merseyside Series (1981)
Mersey Heritage Trust[]
The Mersey Heritage Trust was formed by Susan Hanley-Place and Geoff Hanley in the 1980s as a means to provide unemployed Liverpudlian volunteers with a framework for developing skills and learning new ones. The MHT owns and restored the tall ship Zebu, which was built in Helingsborg, Sweden, in 1938 and is now moored at Liverpool's Albert Dock.