‘The Sea in Birmingham’ is a rich compendium of stories by established authors and exciting new talent. It sheds light on some unexpected aspects of life in and around the Second City – not least the presence of a good deal of water.
Chic new shopping malls and trendy bars contrast with the workaday world of an aeroplane factory, the unsettling undertow of civil riot, and the quiet depredations of illness and old age. There are unsatisfactory parties, and more unsatisfactory love affairs; there are lost pasts and uncertain futures. There’s a Caribbean bus driver, a Sikh holy boy, a Russian chef, a Welsh fortune teller, and Irish people a-plenty.
There’s no sea here – not even a big river – but there are canals and reservoirs and underground lakes that lap darkly under Black Country cellars. Not to mention lobsters. And seagulls.The writers are Mez Packer, Alan Beard, Kit de Waal, Julia Bell, Amanda Smyth, Roz Goddard, Kavita Bhanot, Joel Lane, Fiona Joseph, Polly Wright, James B Goodwin, Georgina Bruce, Charles Wilkinson, Sibyl Ruth, Natalie White, Mick Scully, Jackie Gay, Anthony Ferner, Annie Murray, Luke Brown, Gaynor Arnold and Ryan Davis; and a foreword by Alan Mahar.
