A DAILY TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022
''There is unlikely to be a fuller or more informative history of Birmingham than Vinen''s'' Jonathan Coe, Financial Times
''Vinen has written a history of Birmingham, but it is also a theory of Birmingham. And also, perhaps, a theory of England. I buy it'' Daily Telegraph
For over a century, Birmingham has been the second largest town in England. In his richly enjoyable new book Richard Vinen captures the drama of a small village that grew to become the quintessential city of the twentieth century: a place of mass production and full employment that began in the 1930s, but which came to a cataclysmic halt in the 1980s. Birmingham has also been a magnet for migration, drawing in people from Wales, Ireland, India, Pakistan and the Caribbean. Indeed, much of British history can be explained, in large measure, with reference to Birmingham.
Vinen roots his sweeping story in the
