A HISTORY teacher turned author from Westhoughton has chronicled the social revolution which took place on the home front during World War One.

Joseph O’Neill’s fifth book, Manchester in the Great War, has been launched by publishers Pen and Sword.

Mr O’Neill, aged 63, is enjoying a second career since leaving his job at St Monica’s RC High School in Prestwich in 2008, and has turned the spotlight on the city of his birth as part of the Barnsley-based publishing company’s series of books focusing on the centenary of World War One.

Mr O’Neill, who lives in Daisy Hill, said: “My book is about how the experience of war impacted on life in Manchester, from the initial enthusiasm for ‘sorting out’ the German Kaiser in time for Christmas 1914, to the gradual realisation of the enormity of human sacrifice required.

“It is a record of the growing disillusionment of the people, their tragedies and hardships and a determination to see it through.

“Manchester was more profoundly involved in the Great War than any other provincial city. Manchester men volunteered in greater numbers than any others.

“Its women, hardened to the rigours of factory life, flooded into munitions and engineering workshops and worked long hours while contending with cruel shortages.”

Previous books by Mr O’Neill include The Manchester Martyrs (2012), about the last multiple execution to take place in Britain, Crime City (2008) about the city’s 19th century underworld, Big Brother (2007) about the growth of surveillance technology in Britain and a self help book for people suffering from anxiety and agoraphobia Escape? (2007).

Although Mr O’Neill is enjoying his life as an author, it has been hard won, after suffering a series of rejections when he started submitting scripts for publication.

He said: “It’s like everything, once you get the first couple of books under your belt and you’ve got a bit of a track record for writing articles for magazines as required by the market, it becomes easier.

“They know you can produce material to the required number of words and to the required standard.

“It is, nevertheless, difficult to get published. One of the things you have got to be is very thick skinned. Hundreds and hundreds of hours worth of work gets returned with not a word of explanation. You’ve got to be dogged and not easily discouraged.”

Manchester in the Great War is available online at amazon.co.uk