Birmingham indepndent publishers Floodgate Press have a new anthology out, and this time the focus is on the West Midlands region’s Night Time Economy, very, very broadly defined.
Across twenty nine “stories of forlorn 3am hopes and of nocturnal revelations. Of celebrations and hauntings. Of the lost and the found. Of the urban and the urbane. Of the all too real. And the all too unreal”. Both fictional and nonfictional. Night Time Economy is a rich collection of writing presenting a multifacted array of perspectives on the West Midlands after dark, and the connections and desires which emerge amongst residents during the nocturnal hours.
As with Digbeth Stories Floodgate’s previous anthology I am very pleased to be one of the contributors.
At the Dog & Partridge
My contribution to Floodgate Press’ new Night Time Economy anthology is a work of creative nonfiction that tells the story of a long demolished pub, The Dog & Partridge, to comprehend the south Birmingham suburb of Selly Oak past and the present. Meeting a cast of Black Country bargees, libertarian communists, foundry workers, armed robbers wrongly convicted of a dreadful murder and the occasional sociologist, all united by having drunk at the Dog & Patridge or in nearby pubs, along the way.
This sets up the conjecture that while the Dog & Partridge was a fairly undistinguished boozer and at times even a potentially threatening place, it is possible from what remains gleanable of its often mundane occasionally fascinating story to pick out the importance of the pub as a social space. Perhaps more so than other major British cities pubs made Birmingham and the towns of the adjacent Black Country what they are today warts and all. While aspects of what the Dog & Partridge represented to people can be found in pubs everywhere. Naturally begging the question, with last orders tolling for the final time with such freqency at many establishments across the country, what space if any will replace the pub?
Interest piqued? Night Time Economy is avaliable direct from Floodgate Press for £12.99 (buy here). Copies can also be bought from Birmingham independent booksellers including Voce Books and The Heath Bookshop.