The Word's the Thing
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The Word's the Thing |
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As Birmingham’s contribution to 2008 as England's national Year of Reading a number of new poems were written especially to help promote reading to new readers. These were donated to be freely distributed as widely as possible to people in Birmingham and beyond. These writings were produced essentially for an adult audience, but have general appeal within that.
These were written in deliberate attempts to cover a range of lengths and styles. Some are meant to be taken quite lightly; others are meant to be lingered over. The people involved in bringing these poems together have donated them to promote reading in Birmingham, and beyond. A selection is offered here to support Birmingham's activities to promote wider reading in the city and beyond.
As Birmingham’s contribution to 2008 as England's national Year of Reading a number of very short fictional ‘tales’ were written especially to help promote reading to new readers. These were donated to be freely distributed as widely as possible to people in Birmingham and beyond. These writings were produced essentially for an adult audience, but have general appeal within that.
These are (fictional) stories told to an imaginary researcher. They capture fragments of the lives of each narrator. The 'tales' are now being brought together as an imagined account of social research under the 'Sides and Edges' heading. A selection is offered here to support Birmingham's activities to promote wider reading in the city and beyond.
The Number 11 bus route is a 26 mile outer circle route that takes in many of Birmingham's suburbs. 
is set around this bus route and is offered here for interest. The version here is the first outline and was launched at 11 minutes past 11.00 on November 11th 2010. The story has already been substantially redrafted and is being extended with the aim of the full version being released at 11.11am on 11/11/11.
You can read this story anywhere - but you could also visit Birmingham, sit on the Number 11 bus for a couple of hours and read the story as you go round...........
Sam is, for a reason that cannot be divulged, contained in a box. It wasn’t what he had planned. It wasn’t what he would have wanted yet there he is, alone with himself and his thoughts and his memories.
Will he survive? Will he escape? Will it all become too much for him? Read to find out………….
is a gripping story about resilience, truth, family and language.
Castle Vale is a modern housing area on the north-eastern edge of Birmingham. It is unique in many ways and has gone through distinct sets of changes. The things that most people noticed on their first visit to the area, when it was first built as a housing estate, was the flat and open landscape and the very distinct boundaries which seemed to almost cut Castle Vale off from the rest of the city to make a little island of people. These features have recently been changed, and will continue to change into the future, but each change is dictated by past developments. To understand what an area is like now, it is important to understand its history. The history of the Castle Vale area can be traced backwards, layer by layer and then built up again as a sequential record of those things that made the area what it was at each stage of its development.
The 
follows the changing fortunes of the small area of land known as Castle Vale from its beginnings as a swampy forest, through the feudal times of battling barons, through the growing industrialisation of Birmingham to the First World War, on through its life as an airfield, finally to the construction of the modern housing estate and the very recent improvements to that area. From time to time little excursions will be taken into the wider history of the region but only in order to set the very local events within their wider setting and make them even more interesting than they already are.
This version of 
is an introduction to a broader set of writings that describe one (fictional) sociologist’s development and an (equally fictional) research activity undertaken by that sociologist.
The research accounts collected from interviewees are presented as tales. The article ends with one possible framework for analysing these tales.
Writing and place have been integrally linked in a number of ways. Poets have written in response to particular locations; novels have been set in specific settings; writers have often had their favourite writing places; places have had writers-in-residence.
The 
section of The Word's the Thing will explore the wider possibilities around linking 'writing' and 'place'.
There are a number of workplaces that rely on writing or written texts for its core business (newspapers; libraries; advertising agencies.....). Writers have also had some, fairly limited, opportunities to be attached (via writing residences) to a variety of work settings.
This 
section of The Word's the Thing will explore the wider possibilities around linking 'writing' and 'work'.
The several articles in this section cover an overview of places whose names end in –stan; famous people with the name Stanley; and then an imaginative leap that begins to speculate what might happen if several (historical or fictional) people were to go on a grand adventure together in some of the –stan countries.
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