THE colourful and chaotic world of local newspapers in the 1800s is the subject of the first book published by the relaunched University of Chester Press.

Politics, Publishing and Personalities: Wrexham Newspapers, 1848-1914 was unveiled at the Gladstone’s Library, in Hawarden, Flintshire, where the author Dr Lisa Peters, the university’s law librarian, gave a reading to a select group of guests.

Dr Sarah Griffiths, managing editor of the University of Chester Press, said: “The University’s relaunched academic press aims to provide authors with a cost-effective means of publishing their research and primarily publishes material from the University, plus publications with a significant relationship to the history, life and culture of Chester and its surrounding area."

The next University of Chester Press publication is Still Life: Poetry from the Cheshire Prize for Literature 2010, edited by Dr Emma Rees, which will be published in May.