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.
Cover by Foka Wolf
“If you think it’s looking dark over Nechells Green and your face is as long as Livery Street and, if you can forgive me for getting all kippers and curtains, this book will hearten you.” Stephen Duffy of The Lilac Time
“Birmingham is a mythical city, like Jerusalem once was before it became a place you could just go to. For me Birmingham has more in common with Camelot than it has with Coventry.” Bill Drummond
Pier Review: A Road Trip in Search of the Great British Seaside
Fifty-five piers. Two weeks. One eccentric road trip.
Before the seaside of their youth disappears forever, two friends from the landlocked Midlands embark on a peculiar journey to see all the surviving pleasure piers in England and Wales. With a clapped-out car and not enough cash, Jon and Danny recruit Midge, a man they barely know, to be their driver, even though he has to be back in a fortnight to sign on…
Join Jon and Danny as they take a funny and nostalgic look at Britishness at the beach, amusement in the arcades and friendship on the road.
101 Things Birmingham Gave the World
This is the book that proves that Birmingham is not just the crucible of the Industrial Revolution, but the cradle of civilisation.
From the team behind hit Birmingham miscellany, Paradise Circus, comes the definitive guide to the 101 things that made the world what it is today – and all of them were made in Birmingham.
Read how Birmingham gave the world the wonders of tennis, nuclear war, the Beatles, ‘that smell of eggs’ and many more… 97 more.
“101 Things…, is not a Birmingham of the memory. It is a living breathing thing, wrestling with the city’s contradictions, press-ganging the typically arch and understated humour of the Brummie, and an army of little-known facts, both trivial and monumental, into reshaping its confusing reputation.” Stewart Lee
Concrete and Cocktails: a journey to Birmingham’s glitter-stained independent heart
Can you drink in all of Birmingham’s independent hostelries in one day? Yes of course, although it might not be sensible.
An unchained psychogeographic adventure
This was a test run for Pier Review.
Guttermouth: Novelty Trinkets From The Edge And Beyond
Five years of foul mouth observation and booze fueled nihilism – A collection of a confused man trying to find meaning in a world I abandoned as rational a long time before.
The best of a full half a decade of blog posts, magazine articles, interviews reviews and columns. Guttermouth is a meaty 47,000 word e-book, a resignation letter to reality, and possibly future evidence for the prosecution.