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Birmingham: It's Not Shit - 50 Things That Delight About Brum
You know that Birmingham isn’t shit. Sometimes, though, you can't articulate exactly why…
In this funny, revelatory and occasionally even nostalgic collection, the team behind Paradise Circus explore the places, people and Brummie ephemera that delight us about the second city. It lays out the ineffable reasons why we say ‘Birmingham: it’s not shit’, and then effs them.
Meet at the ramp and Jon Bounds, Jon Hickman and Danny Smith will dally down Dale End and take you up The Ackers. Discover Aston Villa’s sarcastic advertising hoarding, learn why Snobs could literally be magical, and dig up what might or might not be buried under Spaghetti Junction.
In this funny, revelatory and occasionally even nostalgic collection, the team behind Paradise Circus explore the places, people and Brummie ephemera that delight us about the second city. It lays out the ineffable reasons why we say ‘Birmingham: it’s not shit’, and then effs them.
Meet at the ramp and Jon Bounds, Jon Hickman and Danny Smith will dally down Dale End and take you up The Ackers. Discover Aston Villa’s sarcastic advertising hoarding, learn why Snobs could literally be magical, and dig up what might or might not be buried under Spaghetti Junction.
244 pages, Paperback
Published December 6, 2021
1 person is currently reading
8 people want to read
About the author
Jon Bounds
10 books11 followersJon was voted the ‘14th Most Influential Person in the West Midlands’ in 2008. Subsequently he has not been placed. He's been a football referee, venetian blind maker, cellar man, and a losing Labour council candidate: “No, no chance.
A complete no-hoper” said a spoilt ballot. Jon wrote and directed the first ever piece of drama performed on Twitter when he persuaded a cast including MPs and journalists to give over their timelines to perform Twitpanto. But all that is behind him.
As well as founding the famous blog Birmingham: It's Not Shit, he's also organised psychogeographic trips around Birmingham's Outer Circle, measured the emotional wellbeing of the city and started Talk Like a Brummie Day. He currently edits Paradise Circus: A Birmingham Miscellany.
In 2014 he published 101 Things Birmingham Gave the World, with a foreword written by Stewart Lee. Pier Review, is about visiting every seaside pier in England and Wales and has been described as "On the Road meets On the Buses".
A complete no-hoper” said a spoilt ballot. Jon wrote and directed the first ever piece of drama performed on Twitter when he persuaded a cast including MPs and journalists to give over their timelines to perform Twitpanto. But all that is behind him.
As well as founding the famous blog Birmingham: It's Not Shit, he's also organised psychogeographic trips around Birmingham's Outer Circle, measured the emotional wellbeing of the city and started Talk Like a Brummie Day. He currently edits Paradise Circus: A Birmingham Miscellany.
In 2014 he published 101 Things Birmingham Gave the World, with a foreword written by Stewart Lee. Pier Review, is about visiting every seaside pier in England and Wales and has been described as "On the Road meets On the Buses".
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 1, 2022
I did not find all the chapters relevant or had no clue what they were on about. But all in all, it was a fun read. I found out a lot of fun facts about Birmingham I did not know about before!
December 31, 2022
Birmingham, It’s Not Shit, by Jon Bounds, Jon Hickman & Danny Smith
“It’s impossible to do an impression of David Bellamy: you can only do an impression of Lenny Henry doing David Bellamy. In the same way, if you try to write about Birmingham as a city you can only write about the impressions it has given you. It won’t sound much like it, and your beard falls off.”
Subtitled “50 Things That Delight About Brum,” it’s a series of short articles about Brum by Brummies who love her. Brum can be navigated by bus; it has to be, ‘cos there’s no tube - see p139: The Reason We Don’t Have an Underground. If you’ve ever lived in Brum or wanted to or wondered what it was like then this is the book for you.
“It’s impossible to do an impression of David Bellamy: you can only do an impression of Lenny Henry doing David Bellamy. In the same way, if you try to write about Birmingham as a city you can only write about the impressions it has given you. It won’t sound much like it, and your beard falls off.”
Subtitled “50 Things That Delight About Brum,” it’s a series of short articles about Brum by Brummies who love her. Brum can be navigated by bus; it has to be, ‘cos there’s no tube - see p139: The Reason We Don’t Have an Underground. If you’ve ever lived in Brum or wanted to or wondered what it was like then this is the book for you.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews