News Bulletins

Thank you Mr. Cookson

11/04/08
“ Dear Miss. Peel,

It was with great interest and some envy that I received your letter concerning your forthcoming “Where’s Manchester” expedition and I am delighted to send you a complimentary copy of my book “A World of Manchesters”. As you will note from the book (pages 16, 17) and from your own research, information on the Bolivian Manchester is extremely hard to come by and even Father Bill Murphy, a priest working in Bolivia at the time I was writing, was unable to help.
I wrote my book after I retired and had I been younger and in better health I would have tried to visit every Manchester. However, by letter, email and telephone I made contact with Manchesters throughout the world, gaining not only information but making many new friendships.
As your website makes clear, this “lost” Manchester will be very difficult to rediscover and I wish you every success in your quest. I should be most grateful if, on your return, you could let me know if any of the Bolivian Manchester remains.
A similar “lost” Manchester is shown on some maps of Suriname (page 108) but I was unable to confirm its location or other information. If you come across any information on the Suriname Manchester please let me know.

Finally, I’m sure our local newspaper, the “Manchester Evening News” would be very interested to hear of your proposed expedition - they did quite a spread on my book when it came out.

With very best wishes for a successful, safe and enjoyable expedition.”

Roy Cookson


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It was a miserable Friday morning and we had just returned from a dental experience lead by the oral equivalent of Doctor Josef Mengele. This little ordeal was supposed to be just another small step along the road to health and fitness prior to leaving for Bolivia but Dentist Mengele was intent on making it a memorable experience. The sly fox had lulled me into a false sense of security by filling a cavity I never knew I had (and quite possibly never really did) but managed to do it in such a way that it quite literally fell out of my mouth before the surgery door had closed behind me. Thus I had to repeat the experience once again and endured two visits to the dentist in under 10 minutes.

Annoyed and dribbling I opened the front door of our house to find a small package that neither Liz nor I were expecting, addressed to Miss. Peel. Liz took the package from me and proceeded to open it with an expression of puzzlement which immediately turned to a lopsided smile of dumbfounded joy as she pulled the contents out from within. She held in her hands “A World of Manchesters”. The book we had been searching for for many months. After countless emails and phone calls all it took was one letter to the right address and for it to then be passed on to the author, Roy Cookson.

In a mixture of anesthetically induced slurred speech and giggles we wrestled over the book and together turned to pages 16 and 17 to find ‘Manchester, Bolivia’. We’d struggled to get hold of a copy of Roy’s book for so long we thought we’d almost given up on finding it and then out of the blue, all of a sudden we had hold of a copy. And a copy freely given as a wonderful present from the author. We will treasure both the book and Roy’s letter. We’ll also think of Roy’s help when we do reach Manchester. As Roy says in his letter, there is very little information to be found on the settlement, but now, with his help and his book we’re a few steps closer to discovering its mysteries. Sincerely, thank you Roy.

“A World of Manchesters” is a wonderfully written, fascinating and entertaining read that we’d highly recommend to anyone, whether you have a connection to Manchester or not. If you’d like a copy please let us know and we’ll pass on your details to Roy Cookson.