A Tale of Two Cities
Alan Mahar from Tindal Street Press takes the Birmingham to London connection
This time last year an annus mirabilis started in earnest for Catherine O'Flynn when her What Was Lost was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize; after which came the Guardian First Book, the Costa and the British Book Awards - the full royal flush. As a result, my trips to London from Birmingham's Custard Factory have become ever more frequent; and even more so for my colleague, editor Luke Brown, who was Catherine's publicist.
Now it's two years in succession for Tindal Street Press, with Gaynor Arnold's fictional take on the Dickens' marriage, Girl in a Blue Dress, in contention for the 2008 prize. Gaynor's creation of Dorothea Gibson and her celebrity author husband Alfred and the poignant tale of their courtship, marriage and children, which culminates in the very public scandal of their bitter separation, make for an ambitious, absorbing and moving novel.
It's been remarked before of Tindal Street debut authors that their novels don't read like first novels. Catherine O'Flynn's didn't; neither did Clare Morrall's Astonishing Splashes of Colour (shortlisted in 2003) - similarly mature writing from accomplished and dedicated women writers. So, allow me to say that I wasn't entirely surprised to hear Gaynor's name in the Booker's dozen. Yes, it's a shock to be listed; but isn't it what a publisher plans for their autumn lead title? For anyone who would listen, I was talking this book up right through the spring. (No one was, by the way.) This is Tindal Street's third time on the longlist in six years, each time with a woman novelist from Birmingham. And no, it's not by accident; we do aim to be on these prize lists; and now the score is eleven out of forty-one published under this imprint.
Of course, the second city is proud as punch, most especially of the recent Observer banner: ‘Birmingham rules the literary roost'. I fell off my garden chair reading Francesca Segal's blush-making - but justly argued - piece. (Even if a part of me suspects the headline was some cynical sub-editor's idea of irony; oh my, there are such misconceptions of Brum.)
But did you know that the great man of London, Charles Dickens, had a strong Birmingham connection? ‘I bear an old love towards Birmingham and Birmingham men;' he claims in a rather windy inaugural address, quickly adding his small omission, ‘and Birmingham women'. It was one of the cities he barnstormed on his punishing reading and speaking tours. In 1866 the great travelling author Charles Dickens performed in the Town Hall. ‘We had a tremendous hall at Birmingham last night - £230 - 2100 people. Made a most ridiculous mistake. Had Nickleby on my list to finish with, instead of the Trial. Read Nickleby with great go.'
Such a philanthropist was only too pleased to donate some of his takings to the Birmingham and Midland Institute, a society that supported the educational advancement of working men, clerks, apprentices - and women.
Prominent in the foyer of the Birmingham and Midland Institute, a Grade II listed building in the city centre, there's a bust of the One and Only, marking Dickens' financial generosity to the Institute and his service as its 16th President. More recent presidents have been Fay Weldon and Lunar Men biographer Jenny Uglow.
I mention all this because it will be the venue for the Birmingham launch of Gaynor Arnold's Girl in a Blue Dress on September 11th. We will welcome a hundred or more supporters from our city to toast Gaynor's achievement - in writing such a delightful and ambitious novel, and for reaching the last thirteen for the Man Booker Prize 2008. (There will be a reception, a week earlier in London - a tale for two cities, indeed.)
But Birmingham is the city where our author has lived for the last thirty years. Gaynor has always been an enthusiastic Dickensian, an admirer of the Great Man's verve, wit, verbal dexterity, storytelling, empathy for the disadvantaged and dedication to the joy of writing. She surely possesses many of those qualities herself. As a social worker she has supported families in the city since she first settled here. She has a history of theatrical performance too from her university days, when she toured the United States with Jonathan Miller's Hamlet.
As for her dedication to the craft of writing, I can tell you that I first met her when I taught a creative writing class back in the early Eighties in an arts centre opposite Edgbaston cricket ground and our sessions were punctuated by the mocking quacks of mallards in the park. Out of brief classroom exercises Gaynor's fictional style soon developed its poise, polish and storytelling confidence. In 1987, after a spell with a rival group, she joined the writing group that I founded in 1983, Tindal Street Fiction Group, which boasts its own extraordinary tally of literary successes. I'm only an honorary member now, whereas Gaynor is still their loyal treasurer.
Gaynor has been writing - beautifully - for years. Tindal Street has published a few of her always stylish short stories: a dark tale of hippies commandeering a rich girl's beautiful house stands out for me. But now she's found the perfect fictional vehicle for her gifts - and it's more articulated lorry than Mini Metro. Make no mistake: she has worked hard for her moment in the sunshine - and with perfect good grace. I wouldn't be surprised if it were more than a Warholian fifteen minutes for her.
The venue for Gaynor's Birmingham launch, the BMI, houses a good quality literary and music library, select rather than comprehensive. Affiliated societies - ramblers, philatelists, geneaologists, architects, chamber players and many more - gather there. The rangy, dapper administrator, Philip Fisher, showed me the Dickens collection, an archive of bound volumes of the Inimitable's fiction, journalism and letters, together with periodicals and monographs on the Victorian great. A gaoler's key opened the gate at the top of a spiral staircase down into the dark. Perhaps because of its shabby genteel, curiously Dickensian ambience, I'm assured the library is a comfortable place for writers to work. One of our other authors, Michael Richardson, wrote most of his Sagittarius Prize-winning comic novel of Brum in 1945, The Pig Bin, there.
Actually, our Birmingham launch will be two days after the Man Booker September 9th shortlist announcement. Fingers crossed for a night of celebration. If the judges really do like Girl in a Blue Dress a lot, we might be whooping it up at the BMI, on September 11th - in the Dickens Room, naturally; which can only mean more business for Slaters suit hire and another tipsy train down to London.
Alan Mahar, Publishing Director, Tindal Street Press
Read Alan's first article Happy Trains From Birmingham
Read Gaynor Arnold's author interview
Read more about Gaynor Arnold and the rest of the longlisted authors
Visit the Tindal Street Press website
