review

Careless Talk is the latest from Tindal Street Press, and is Michael Richardson’s follow up to The Pig Bin- an acclaimed comic novel set in Birmingham in the 40s. Morley Charles is a liar, not in the “attacks could be launched in as little as 45 minutes” sense – but in a more DC Thompson-esque way, fibbing and pretending to be foreign to battle the insecurities of starting secondary school. Although having the odd drink, and fantasising about seeing the next-door neighbour in the bath isn’t quite Winker Watson material. Careless Talk, his second adventure reads very much as a comic – apart from the undertones of self abuse and the way the insecurities of youth are a lot closer to the surface. The heroes of The Beano are a way beneath young Morley too, who prefers Huck Finn, even if he does know more about them from his encyclopedia than actually reading Twain. It’s doubtful that he has much knowledge of the Mississippi when even Nechells is a far off place to be thought of with a little wonder. Although the book is defiantly and actively set in Birmingham, in order to get past the Alton Douglas factor,...

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Sexual relations with penguins, tightrope walking from Beetham Tower to the Palisades, drinking in Tysley. No it’s not Stan Collymore’s to do list, it’s some of the surreal goings on in Mick Scully’s Little Moscow, the book and the – possibly fictional – bar where Birmingham’s notorious villains hang out. Tindal Street‘s latest book is a collection of short stories, that intertwine as underworld relationships often do. For all the fiction it’s the down at heel detail that works best, the motives of the characters is believable despite not having too much room to develop them over some strikingly paced stories. The disparate collection of crooks all have their own internal moral code, and a logic that allows them to burn, steal, shoot and “sleep with men without being gay”. It’s well drawn enough for you not to question them, whether you feel sick at the thought or not – a young thief that puts his own dog down disturbed me more than any number of killings for money, it has a real sadness and emotional depth. It’s in these passages that the book really rises above genre ‘noir’ fiction, criminals are human, after all. One hopes that Mick...

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