David Cliffe

David Cliffe was born at Macclesfield, Cheshire, in 1946, when there were five cinemas operating, all of which he remembers. He studied English language and medieval English literature at the University of Leeds followed by a postgraduate diploma in librarianship. He worked at the public library in Reading for the entirety of his career in a variety of posts, the last one being Local Studies Manager. This fitted well with his long-term interest in local history and in his retirement, David...See more

David Cliffe was born at Macclesfield, Cheshire, in 1946, when there were five cinemas operating, all of which he remembers. He studied English language and medieval English literature at the University of Leeds followed by a postgraduate diploma in librarianship. He worked at the public library in Reading for the entirety of his career in a variety of posts, the last one being Local Studies Manager. This fitted well with his long-term interest in local history and in his retirement, David continues to work on the vast and extensive local studies collection at Reading Central Library, making more of it available on line by cataloguing and scanning, on a voluntary and unpaid basis. He is also Chairman of both the Berkshire Local History Association, and the History of Reading Society. In 1978, he wrote The Stranger in Reading: an Unofficial Guide, published by Reading Libraries, and Roots and Branches published by Two Rivers Press in 2007 to celebrate the centenary of the opening of Battle and Caversham Libraries. He has three books of Macclesfield history awaiting publication, the first of which, on street-names, is due to publish in 2017. See less