“EVERYONE HAS A TIMELINE AND WHO ARE WE TO JUDGE?” As I pulled up in Chorlton to meet Julie and Jim, who volunteer for Mad Dogs to deliver hot food to the homeless, the temperature reading on my dashboard was 3.5 degrees. The previous day it had snowed, leaving the streets wet and chilled, as if a fridge had leaked onto them. I stepped out of my warm car and into Jim’s old Citroen. Julie and I have started to […]
HERITAGE ISN’T JUST ABOUT BRICKS AND MORTAR, IT’S A STATE OF MIND TOO Irk Town remains in the area beneath the new CIS building, on the way up to Collyhurst. If you read The Manchester Man, the famous 19th Century novel that details the life and times of Jabez Clegg, you’ll learn that the River Irk used to flood, bringing chaos to the slums and businesses stuffed into the area around its banks. The book also brings a sense of […]
“MY LITTLE CHAIR IS AT THE CENTRE OF THE WORLD” The previous week, there had been an usual warmth. Washing again dried on suburban lines and people were seduced into thinking that maybe summer, like supermarket strawberries, was an all year thing. But now a mean chill had arrived, and snow was settled on the Pennines beyond Manchester. During those false flag balmy days I’d gone to see a man about buying a taxi. This flight of fancy took me […]
“ON SUCH BALMY DAYS ARE LIFE LONG MEMORIES FORGED” When I lived in Hulme, back in the mid-Eighties, the dead leaves in Alexandra Park formed a mulch with drugs and danger. Originally opened in 1868 to “deter the working men of Manchester from the alehouses during their day off” the park had lost sight of its original aim and had become a place of dereliction. Manchester has struggled with its green spaces for many years. I sometimes think, when listening […]