--- product_id: 477219105 title: "From Manchester with Love: The Life and Opinions of Tony Wilson" price: "€ 38.33" currency: EUR in_stock: true reviews_count: 8 url: https://www.desertcart.hr/products/477219105-from-manchester-with-love-the-life-and-opinions-of-tony store_origin: HR region: Croatia --- # Iconic Manchester music scene Deep-dive biography 1970s-80s cultural chronicle From Manchester with Love: The Life and Opinions of Tony Wilson **Price:** € 38.33 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Summary > 🎤 Own the story behind Manchester’s legendary music visionary! ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** From Manchester with Love: The Life and Opinions of Tony Wilson - **How much does it cost?** € 38.33 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.hr](https://www.desertcart.hr/products/477219105-from-manchester-with-love-the-life-and-opinions-of-tony) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Key Features - • **Exclusive New Store Stock:** Grab this fresh release before it’s gone—perfect for collectors and culture buffs alike. - • **Immersive Cultural Journey:** Explore the vibrant Manchester music revolution through Tony Wilson’s eyes. - • **Top-Ranked Music Biography:** Join thousands of readers who rated it 4.4 stars and propelled it to top charts in music bios. - • **Unfiltered & Raw Narrative:** Experience a sprawling, candid biography that blends personal insight with historical depth. - • **Literary & Intellectual Depth:** Engage with a text rich in cultural references, from Situationists to urban theory. ## Overview From Manchester with Love is a sprawling, insightful biography by Paul Morley that chronicles the life and impact of Tony Wilson, a pivotal figure in Manchester’s 1970s-80s music and cultural scene. Blending personal anecdotes with rich historical context, this book offers a unique, intellectual exploration of Wilson’s legacy, making it a must-read for music lovers and cultural historians alike. ## Description Buy From Manchester with Love: The Life and Opinions of Tony Wilson Main by Morley, Paul (ISBN: 9780571252503) from desertcart's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. Review: A love letter to the near past - Paul Morley has written a long and sprawling book about the late Tony Wilson. You will either already know who Wilson was-one of the leading personalities in Manchester's 1970s and 1980s music scene-and will want to read the book, or you never will have heard of him and pass it by. The book is a tremendous read: fascinating, insightful, and empathetic, with Morley's on-off friendship with Wilson providing some of the most informed and poignant moments here. In many ways this is the textual equivalent of the Durutti Column's beautiful 'Paean to Wilson' LP. While it starts as a more-or-less standard chronological biography this structure is soon abandoned for a Morleyesque free-form exposition on Wilson and the world. Though at times infuriating, on the whole this is what you would expect from the author and therefore shouldn't be surprised by. However, the book is far too long and apparently lacking in outside editorial intervention. It is perfect but at the same time imperfect. Many of the digressions in the first half of the book simply read like Wikipedia entries on various individuals, buildings, social movements, and philosophies. At times, this messy scaffolding obscures the landmark Wilsonian building underneath. Finally, it is astonishing to see a reference in the text to W.B. Yates (sic) in a book put out by the legendary poetry publisher Faber and Faber. Review: Sketch for Tony - This is a wonderful piece of writing. You may be expecting just another account of Factory Records and the Hacienda – in which case, as Anthony H. Wilson said, you really should read more books. Instead, Paul Morley pulls together all the strands that made Wilson the puckish and provocative presence he offered to national media and local politics alike: north-western pride, residual Catholic belief, the Situationists, Grenada TV, and that wired radicalism which could settle any argument with a scally-bothering quote from Boethius or a quick obscenity. In the process, he educates us in the same breezy way that the man himself so loved to do. Music gets slotted into details of urban planning theory, the Industrial Revolution, Anthony Burgess, a potted history of the Angry Brigade, Raymond Williams, Bill Grundy, and a great deal more. Somewhere, perhaps on some sleek high-flying designer cloud, one can sense Wilson’s spirit nodding with approval at the reading, the analysis, and the sheer hard work it must have taken Morley to structure and sustain this enormous text, while still pointing out what's absent. “Super job, darling. But of course, you missed –“ In fact, the missing lies with us. Morley’s book is a memorial both to an individual and to the long 20th century we’ve just left behind, and one of its themes is the dire, spectacular effect of the Internet, which has now rendered impossible a public secret like Factory and banished any such literate extravagance as Wilson from its ever-blander realm of hashtags and evaporating gossip. As a result, Morley’s opinions are superbly poised but have an undertaker’s finality: we won’t see, or hear, anything else in our lifetime that matches the impact of Joy Division and the Pistols. The same goes for Tony Wilson. Poorly played on film (Steve Coogan’s attempt was pretty much Alan Partridge meets The Lads), he’s better summed up by Morley as a never-satisfied romantic and urban visionary, who finally merged with the reborn, shining Manchester he imagined. The writing doesn’t flinch from other, unpalatable truths. There was far too much cocaine, too little stability (at work and at home), never quite enough money, and a horribly premature death: it still comes a shock to realise Wilson took up so much space and time, but was gone before he was 60. Even allowing for his subject’s failings, though, Morley’s book is a vast, elegant reminder of what was, what could have been, and what will never be again. Mind you, “l’esprit d’escalier” doesn’t mean that at all. ## Features - New Store Stock ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | 309,265 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) 22 in Music Biographies for Young Adults 196 in Music Recording & Sound 1,893 in Actors & Entertainers Biographies | | Customer Reviews | 4.4 out of 5 stars 159 Reviews | ## Images ![From Manchester with Love: The Life and Opinions of Tony Wilson - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71duPcaWVCL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A love letter to the near past *by D***S on 27 November 2021* Paul Morley has written a long and sprawling book about the late Tony Wilson. You will either already know who Wilson was-one of the leading personalities in Manchester's 1970s and 1980s music scene-and will want to read the book, or you never will have heard of him and pass it by. The book is a tremendous read: fascinating, insightful, and empathetic, with Morley's on-off friendship with Wilson providing some of the most informed and poignant moments here. In many ways this is the textual equivalent of the Durutti Column's beautiful 'Paean to Wilson' LP. While it starts as a more-or-less standard chronological biography this structure is soon abandoned for a Morleyesque free-form exposition on Wilson and the world. Though at times infuriating, on the whole this is what you would expect from the author and therefore shouldn't be surprised by. However, the book is far too long and apparently lacking in outside editorial intervention. It is perfect but at the same time imperfect. Many of the digressions in the first half of the book simply read like Wikipedia entries on various individuals, buildings, social movements, and philosophies. At times, this messy scaffolding obscures the landmark Wilsonian building underneath. Finally, it is astonishing to see a reference in the text to W.B. Yates (sic) in a book put out by the legendary poetry publisher Faber and Faber. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Sketch for Tony *by M***M on 10 May 2022* This is a wonderful piece of writing. You may be expecting just another account of Factory Records and the Hacienda – in which case, as Anthony H. Wilson said, you really should read more books. Instead, Paul Morley pulls together all the strands that made Wilson the puckish and provocative presence he offered to national media and local politics alike: north-western pride, residual Catholic belief, the Situationists, Grenada TV, and that wired radicalism which could settle any argument with a scally-bothering quote from Boethius or a quick obscenity. In the process, he educates us in the same breezy way that the man himself so loved to do. Music gets slotted into details of urban planning theory, the Industrial Revolution, Anthony Burgess, a potted history of the Angry Brigade, Raymond Williams, Bill Grundy, and a great deal more. Somewhere, perhaps on some sleek high-flying designer cloud, one can sense Wilson’s spirit nodding with approval at the reading, the analysis, and the sheer hard work it must have taken Morley to structure and sustain this enormous text, while still pointing out what's absent. “Super job, darling. But of course, you missed –“ In fact, the missing lies with us. Morley’s book is a memorial both to an individual and to the long 20th century we’ve just left behind, and one of its themes is the dire, spectacular effect of the Internet, which has now rendered impossible a public secret like Factory and banished any such literate extravagance as Wilson from its ever-blander realm of hashtags and evaporating gossip. As a result, Morley’s opinions are superbly poised but have an undertaker’s finality: we won’t see, or hear, anything else in our lifetime that matches the impact of Joy Division and the Pistols. The same goes for Tony Wilson. Poorly played on film (Steve Coogan’s attempt was pretty much Alan Partridge meets The Lads), he’s better summed up by Morley as a never-satisfied romantic and urban visionary, who finally merged with the reborn, shining Manchester he imagined. The writing doesn’t flinch from other, unpalatable truths. There was far too much cocaine, too little stability (at work and at home), never quite enough money, and a horribly premature death: it still comes a shock to realise Wilson took up so much space and time, but was gone before he was 60. Even allowing for his subject’s failings, though, Morley’s book is a vast, elegant reminder of what was, what could have been, and what will never be again. Mind you, “l’esprit d’escalier” doesn’t mean that at all. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Not a quick read *by L***E on 10 June 2025* This book is a lot! I was an expecting a biography about Anthony Wilson but what you get is a book about everything random in his lifetime and Manchester. It’s not all about him. There are 51 chapters. There’s a lot of words to describe simple things. Sometimes it almost felt like poetry. I felt the book improved half way through but that’s over 250 pages in. It’s a big commitment and at times, I found it hard to go back to it. I liked it but I’m not if I know any more about Anthony Wilson than I did before I started it. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.hr/products/477219105-from-manchester-with-love-the-life-and-opinions-of-tony](https://www.desertcart.hr/products/477219105-from-manchester-with-love-the-life-and-opinions-of-tony) --- *Product available on Desertcart Croatia* *Store origin: HR* *Last updated: 2026-10-01*