 OUT of the past 800 years, five might seem a very short period indeed. But they have been very important years for the city - because, finally, after five years, the definitive history of Liverpool has been completed in time for its 800th anniversary celebrations in 2007. However, John Belchem - the man behind the creation of the book Liverpool 800 Culture Character and History - is philosophical about finally seeing his long-awaited, whopper-sized, paper baby delivered in the flesh. "When I first picked it up, it was an absolutely fabulous moment, because it was the first time I'd had a chance to look at the thing as a whole," said the Professor of History at the University of Liverpool. "I showed it to my wife Mary and she thought it was fantastic and other people thought it was terrific. "But because this has been five years in the making, with two years of my time completely devoted to it in terms of every working, waking hour, in the end I was thinking w-e-e-e-lll ... perhaps it's not bad. "I suppose in some ways I even felt deflated." He was holding the dummy of the paperback after its arrival from Slovenia where the entire run is about be printed, an irony not lost on him. "If we could have afforded to have it printed in Liverpool, believe me, we would have done," said Professor Belchem. The book should be in the shops by the end of the month. The only thing left to be done is the burnishing of the front cover depicting the ferries and the waterfront. The book contains the names of hundreds of famous Liverpudlians - everyone from John Lennon, Dixie Dean, Bessie Braddock and Ken Dodd - to the two Williams, Roscoe and Gladstone. "I suppose that will be one of the most controversial aspects of the book - people complaining that so-and-so's name's been left out!" said the 59-year-old Professor, who was born in the East End of London, but came to the University of Liverpool in 1979 and now considers himself "an honorary Scouser". At 523 pages, and weighing 1.9 kgms, even the paperback is a hefty tome, but one which, at £14.95, looks set to be the Christmas book bargain of the year. The £35 hardback edition is heavier still at 2.15 kgms, while the 800 numbered, limited edition copies costing £100 in its bound slip case, will tip the scales at 2.4kgms. Professor Belchem edited and also wrote an introduction to the book, which is split into six chapters. The first, Small Beginnings, covers the period 1207 to 1680. Prof Belchem said that this was probably the most difficult to complete and required three different people - Jenny Kermode, Janet Hollinshead and Malcolm Gretton, experts in medieval, late medieval and early modernist history, respectively. "The problem is that there is so little to work with from that period," said Prof Belchem, who referred to the work of an academic predecessor, Ramsay Muir, who wrote the 700th anniversary history of Liverpool 100 years ago. "We started off talking about Small Beginnings, while Muir began by referring to Long Centuries of Small Things, saying 'don't kid yourself that this is some venerable long romance about ancient Liverpool because that's just rubbish'. "Really, it was just a bloody boring insignificant place where nothing happened until the late 17th, early 18th century, then, WHAM!!! all hell breaks loose." Other chapters include: * Civic Liverpool (1680 to 1800); * A demographic breakdown entitled Living In the Modern City covering the 19th century to the modern day; * Maritime Liverpool; * Cosmopolitan Liverpool, which was also written by Prof Belchem and analyses immigration from the 18th century to the end of World War II; * City of Change and Challenge, which covers the city's history from war's end to today. | 
