It’s safe to say that Northern voices are not the most prolific in acclaimed literature, although Manchester is often referred to as the ‘London of the North’, slowly rising to the same level of idolisation, gentrification and artistic interest. Whilst its music and football legacies live on as the soul perception for many of the city, its literature is not to be ignored.
The Book of Manchester: A City in Short Fiction, is an anthology of short stories that “explores, celebrates and critiques [what] the city of Manchester was and has become”. Featuring three authors, the subsequent event ‘Dissecting Manctopia’ talk at Feel Good Club encompassed Mancunian voices and those who became adopted by the city, or (in their words) the readings and ramblings of Manchester authors who had contributed to the anthology.
And what better setting for such a discussion than the gridded streets of the Northern Quarter? Pink light ricocheted from the disco ball, hung in the middle of the ceiling, casting a hue onto the intergenerational crowd filling every table surrounding the stage. Everyone arrived early, evidently out of eagerness; I sat on the closest seat I could find to the stage, still at the back of the audience.
The night’s event, hosted by one of the book’s editors and renowned journalist, David Sue, began by introducing Mish Green, whose vivid pink hair glowed softly under the pink lights as they walked up to the microphone to give the evening’s first talk. Green read an extract from their story ‘Occupy Manctopia’, voicing the homeless experience, a phenomenon too familiar to the Northern Quarter streets I had just wandered. A voice ignored within Manchester’s gentrification. The extract was raw but their words were lyrical; undoubtable emotion in reliving this past life. Not quite nostalgia but something close.
The next reading was from Brontë Schiltz’s story ‘Contents May Vary’. “As you can tell already, I’m not from Manchester”, she joked. Her Surrey accent was jarring but her nostalgic, coming-of-age extract was comforting. It was about girlhood, growing up in Manchester where everyone in school said ‘grass’ the northern way: “you liked the way they said it but no one liked you”. Although following directly after Green’s raw homeless experience dampened this prepubescent struggle against friendship and a new city, the relatability was obvious in the unanimous nodding of heads in front of me.
The last voice of the night was Ian Carrington and his extract from ‘Ten-Two Forty-Four’, a story of two brothers from his primary school whom he joked “haven’t read it, I probably should have mentioned it”. Performing as Fat Roland, from his solo show to many live literature events, Carrington is not shy of a microphone. As he began reading, his monotonous voice, Mancunian accent and reading of “rat piss and sewage” filled the room with a distant remnants of John Cooper Clark. As sirens pulled past the windows behind him, the dystopian sentiments of the extract fit all too well: when describing Manchester as a “metropolis” and a “mechanic symphony,” the sirens quietened in the distance, maybe realising their irony.
After the readings and a unanimous dash to the bar, David Sue led a panel Q&A, as the speakers all fell back onto the leather sofa dominating the stage. From nostalgia of the old Piccadilly Gardens to the pressures of writing about your (adopted) home in a city such as Manchester, which is so plagued by idealised tourism; The Book of Manchester does not shy away from the voices that need to be realised, the Manchester that is ignored.
In regards to progression, or as Carrington surmises, gentrification, in Manchester, they discussed the city as a brand, which this book is attempting to show the true colours of. They reflected on the stories that they had captured in this anthology and the city that refused to be stagnant, transcending into their literature. After a few ramblings from the audience, David Sue concluded the night and an uproar of applause filled the room.
Copies of The Book of Manchester are available through Comma Press.
