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The Sea in Birmingham
An anthology of short stories celebrating 30 years of Tindal Street Fiction Group (TSFG). 22 brand new stories by TSFG members set in Birmingham, UK and the wider West Midlands region.
- GenresShort Stories
245 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 24, 2013
There were many reasons for looking forward to reading this collection of short stories from the Tindal Street Fiction Group, but I also know that anthologies can often be too disparate, in terms of style, theme, and quality to be wholly satisfying. So the first thing to say is that this is a terrific book, a true good read, which is more than the sum of its often excellent parts.
This is not a regional book. It will give especial pleasure to those who know and love or hate Birmingham and the Midlands, because it is steeped in the landscape, the cityscape, the urban detail, the liminal spaces, the language and the people of the region. But that is by the way. For this is also a book about Britain. Not the Midlands, not England, but the whole island. And not myths about Britain, the tourist board cliches. The Britain we live in now was forged in the white heat of the industrial revolution, and peopled by migrations, internal, forced by enclosures and clearances, and international, as Britain rose to become an imperial superpower. That story is implicit in this book.
We meet gurus in suburban sitting rooms; Irish pubs untouched by corporate theming; families of many colours; the ambivalent dreams of skilled workers; the anxieties, the swagger, the ingenuity of the outsider becoming citizen. The characters in these stories come from every section of society, except the international mega rich who own real estate in the city state that purports to be the national's capital. But if those forces, economically and politically dominant, are not characters in these stories, they are present in what is a profoundly political book. Protest, violence, rioting, poverty, de-industrialisation; the whole sense that things could kick off at any time, and probably won't work out for the best haunts this book.
I could happily write an essay length review discussing each story in detail, but in a short review it would be unfair to single out any of the contributors. It is enough to say that this is a well-edited collection of beautifully written stories. Do yourself a favour and get your hands on a copy soon.
This is not a regional book. It will give especial pleasure to those who know and love or hate Birmingham and the Midlands, because it is steeped in the landscape, the cityscape, the urban detail, the liminal spaces, the language and the people of the region. But that is by the way. For this is also a book about Britain. Not the Midlands, not England, but the whole island. And not myths about Britain, the tourist board cliches. The Britain we live in now was forged in the white heat of the industrial revolution, and peopled by migrations, internal, forced by enclosures and clearances, and international, as Britain rose to become an imperial superpower. That story is implicit in this book.
We meet gurus in suburban sitting rooms; Irish pubs untouched by corporate theming; families of many colours; the ambivalent dreams of skilled workers; the anxieties, the swagger, the ingenuity of the outsider becoming citizen. The characters in these stories come from every section of society, except the international mega rich who own real estate in the city state that purports to be the national's capital. But if those forces, economically and politically dominant, are not characters in these stories, they are present in what is a profoundly political book. Protest, violence, rioting, poverty, de-industrialisation; the whole sense that things could kick off at any time, and probably won't work out for the best haunts this book.
I could happily write an essay length review discussing each story in detail, but in a short review it would be unfair to single out any of the contributors. It is enough to say that this is a well-edited collection of beautifully written stories. Do yourself a favour and get your hands on a copy soon.
September 11, 2013
advance copy of this book of stories by writers in my group, Tindal Street Fiction Group, celebrating thirty years since it was founded. All stories are new and set in Birmingham or the surrounding West Midlands area of the UK. It is officially launched on October 12th at the new Library of Birmingham (UK). I have read quite a few during our fortnightly meetings, but four or five are new to me.
review coming...not a review, but information:
I’ve gone off my own piece a bit (well I think it needs some further editing). Everybody else’s stuff is fine. The title story by Mick Scully has been chosen for next year's 'Best British Short Stories 2014'.
The whole reeks of place. The Mail Box, the Bull Ring, the canals and tunnels, the swimming pools and pubs, the architecture and roads, the houses and parks of Birmingham and the West Midlands are the backdrop to a bunch of terrific stories. Edgbaston, Selly Oak, Digbeth, Nechells, The airport, Handsworth, Moseley of course (where we meet), Sparkhill, and outside Brum, Coventry, Lye, Dudley, and Leamington all feature.
Subjects include love and infidelity, obsession and criminality, ageing and mental health.
Maybe it’s Birmingham’s turn to be in the spotlight, with the international interest in the new Library (where this book will be launched on Oct 12th), and the new TV series ‘Peaky Blinders’ set in Small Heath – albeit filmed elsewhere - and said to rival Boardwalk Empire and other massive USA dramas. This book shows there’s plenty of literary talent here too.
review coming...not a review, but information:
I’ve gone off my own piece a bit (well I think it needs some further editing). Everybody else’s stuff is fine. The title story by Mick Scully has been chosen for next year's 'Best British Short Stories 2014'.
The whole reeks of place. The Mail Box, the Bull Ring, the canals and tunnels, the swimming pools and pubs, the architecture and roads, the houses and parks of Birmingham and the West Midlands are the backdrop to a bunch of terrific stories. Edgbaston, Selly Oak, Digbeth, Nechells, The airport, Handsworth, Moseley of course (where we meet), Sparkhill, and outside Brum, Coventry, Lye, Dudley, and Leamington all feature.
Subjects include love and infidelity, obsession and criminality, ageing and mental health.
Maybe it’s Birmingham’s turn to be in the spotlight, with the international interest in the new Library (where this book will be launched on Oct 12th), and the new TV series ‘Peaky Blinders’ set in Small Heath – albeit filmed elsewhere - and said to rival Boardwalk Empire and other massive USA dramas. This book shows there’s plenty of literary talent here too.
September 9, 2013
It's an impossible task to review an anthology to which you have contributed. (But I'll try.)
Reading the collection felt rather like attending a party. Many of the stories were familiar - yet they'd changed in subtle ways since I last saw them. And it was good to be introduced to some pieces that were wholly new.
Normally I tend to enjoy short fiction that's realistic/naturalistic. But here it was a particular pleasure (and surprise) to find so many stories with magical elements. Threads that reach back to folklore have been woven into more contemporary material.
Does it need a novel to evoke the complexity of a city? This anthology is more like pieces of a mosaic. But collectively the contributions do manage to suggest that there is something rich, and very strange, about life in the West Midlands.
Reading the collection felt rather like attending a party. Many of the stories were familiar - yet they'd changed in subtle ways since I last saw them. And it was good to be introduced to some pieces that were wholly new.
Normally I tend to enjoy short fiction that's realistic/naturalistic. But here it was a particular pleasure (and surprise) to find so many stories with magical elements. Threads that reach back to folklore have been woven into more contemporary material.
Does it need a novel to evoke the complexity of a city? This anthology is more like pieces of a mosaic. But collectively the contributions do manage to suggest that there is something rich, and very strange, about life in the West Midlands.
January 9, 2024
This is a collection of 22 short stories by members of the Tindal Street Fiction Group, a group which was inspired by the Glasgow school such as James Kelman, and has been bringing together Birmingham writers of fiction since 1983. Published by their Tindal Street Press it is a handsomely-presented volume.
As Alan Mahar says in his introduction to the book, Birmingham suffers by not being London. Nor does it redeem itself with the in-yer-face image of, say, Liverpool or Newcastle. Both these cities often have their unique character attributed to their closeness to the Celtic 'fringe.' Birmingham though has a significant and longstanding Irish community as well as large Asian, African-Caribbean and (more recently) Eastern and Central European populations: "The city," as Joel Lane says here in 'For Crying out Loud,' "takes its modern identity from exiles." Perhaps Birmingham wants to stay below the radar, like the Brummie accent, which is allegedly flat to enable talking under the noise of industrial machinery (and the accent usually lampooned isn't even Brummie, it's Black Country which is different).
And of course Birmingham doesn't have the sea at all. Though it does have rivers. And canals. It is the kind of place where stories happen.
The setting of 'The Sea in Birmingham' is one of mixed relationships and shifting alliances - for example in 'The Way of the World' by Kit de Waal (where there are white women but almost no white men) and Jackie Gay's 'Behind Blue Eyes' - Ladypool Road and Blacks and Irish but no dogs. Then there is 'Seagulls in Sparkhill' by Polly Wright where "Sparkhill Park came to represent the whole outside world." This Brum is by and large a gritty place and no more so than in Georgina Bruce's 'Special Evidence' where an entire universe can be dredged from the canals. The canals are tamed a little in 'Beneath the Surface' by Natalie White though as the title implies there is more going on and you may need to go armed against geese or strangers.
Anthony Ferner's 'The Cat it is That Dies, perhaps' is a curious tale of thought experiments beyond Schroedinger's Cat where science meets philosophy, but also portrays Birmingham's Jewish community. Most stories are set in the present day although Roz Goddard's 'Careless Green' starts in Hammersmith in the 1960s, and in 'The Nacelle' James B Goodwin takes us back to the late 1950s and an aircraft factory representing Birmingham's industrial past which doesn't otherwise get much of a look in.
Sibyl Ruth's 'The Call' is another story of silence and exile where Julie who works with abuse victims used to walk by the Thames and in the Georgian squares back in London and now can't. In 'The Champagne Bell' by Charles Wilkinson we are on the eve of the 2011 riots - which also feature in 'For Crying out Loud' - and they are a moment for "those in the city for whom the champagne bell has never rung". They have more than you would think in common with the characters of the title story by Mick Scully. As one of his characters says: "The sea in Birmingham. It's much deeper than it looks."
As Alan Mahar says in his introduction to the book, Birmingham suffers by not being London. Nor does it redeem itself with the in-yer-face image of, say, Liverpool or Newcastle. Both these cities often have their unique character attributed to their closeness to the Celtic 'fringe.' Birmingham though has a significant and longstanding Irish community as well as large Asian, African-Caribbean and (more recently) Eastern and Central European populations: "The city," as Joel Lane says here in 'For Crying out Loud,' "takes its modern identity from exiles." Perhaps Birmingham wants to stay below the radar, like the Brummie accent, which is allegedly flat to enable talking under the noise of industrial machinery (and the accent usually lampooned isn't even Brummie, it's Black Country which is different).
And of course Birmingham doesn't have the sea at all. Though it does have rivers. And canals. It is the kind of place where stories happen.
The setting of 'The Sea in Birmingham' is one of mixed relationships and shifting alliances - for example in 'The Way of the World' by Kit de Waal (where there are white women but almost no white men) and Jackie Gay's 'Behind Blue Eyes' - Ladypool Road and Blacks and Irish but no dogs. Then there is 'Seagulls in Sparkhill' by Polly Wright where "Sparkhill Park came to represent the whole outside world." This Brum is by and large a gritty place and no more so than in Georgina Bruce's 'Special Evidence' where an entire universe can be dredged from the canals. The canals are tamed a little in 'Beneath the Surface' by Natalie White though as the title implies there is more going on and you may need to go armed against geese or strangers.
Anthony Ferner's 'The Cat it is That Dies, perhaps' is a curious tale of thought experiments beyond Schroedinger's Cat where science meets philosophy, but also portrays Birmingham's Jewish community. Most stories are set in the present day although Roz Goddard's 'Careless Green' starts in Hammersmith in the 1960s, and in 'The Nacelle' James B Goodwin takes us back to the late 1950s and an aircraft factory representing Birmingham's industrial past which doesn't otherwise get much of a look in.
Sibyl Ruth's 'The Call' is another story of silence and exile where Julie who works with abuse victims used to walk by the Thames and in the Georgian squares back in London and now can't. In 'The Champagne Bell' by Charles Wilkinson we are on the eve of the 2011 riots - which also feature in 'For Crying out Loud' - and they are a moment for "those in the city for whom the champagne bell has never rung". They have more than you would think in common with the characters of the title story by Mick Scully. As one of his characters says: "The sea in Birmingham. It's much deeper than it looks."
August 19, 2013
This is a collection of new writing from the writers in my fiction group. I have read several of the stories but I'm waiting for my advance copy so I can read them all. The stories I've read are very good indeed!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews