Vintage, £7.99, 264pp £7.59 from the Independent Bookshop: 08430 600 030

Edgelands, By Paul Farley & Michael Symmons Roberts

 

Boyd Tonkin Author Biography

Boyd Tonkin

Boyd Tonkin is Literary Editor at The Independent. An award-winning journalist, he was formerly Social Policy Editor of the New Statesman and has broadcast extensively for BBC arts and current affairs programmes. He has judged the Booker Prize, the Whitbread biography award, the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the David Cohen Prize for a lifetime's achievement in literature.

More articles from this journalist

Friday 17 February 2012

Print
A A A
Latest in Reviews
Satantango, By László Krasznahorkai, trans. George Szirtes
The Plantagenets, By Dan Jones
Why Nations Fail, By Daron Acemoglu and James A Robinson
Tales from the Mall, By Ewan Morrison
Invisible Monsters Remix, By Chuck Palahniuk
Millions Like Us, By Virginia Nicholson
La Roja: a journey through Spanish football, By Jimmy Burns
All Hell Let Loose, By Max Hastings
Gothicka, By Victoria Nelson
The Golden Hour, By William Nicholson

Two poets, brought up on the hazy borders of messy conurbations (Manchester and Liverpool); a multitude of ragged, straggling, low-status sites, from landfill dumps and scrapyards to motorway verges and the frayed hem of retail parks; and one mission: to seek out and celebrate the "edgelands" that fringe our cities, and occupy far more of our actual gaze and time than the "real" countryside of the postcard and the property show.

Written in a delectable prose that scatters flashes of poetry over a sardonic undertow of social comment, Edgelands is a grumpy, deadpan, lyrical triumph. On Britain's grotty margins, the duo trace "desire paths" to find beauty and mystery in the rough darkness on the edge of town.

Comments

Independent Comment
blog comments powered by Disqus
SPONSORED FEATURES

Experience the Heineken Hub

Get free wi-fi and exclusive i content while you enjoy a tasty pint of Heineken at participating pubs.

Teaching jobs Networking 2012 Prizes & offers
Business videos

Can you imagine a career in teaching?

Be inspired to teach - let real teachers show you how rewarding the job can be.

Heineken Hub Networking 2012 Prizes & offers
Business videos

Playing a game-changing role during the Games

Cisco is providing the solutions for London 2012's complex IT needs.

Heineken Hub Teaching jobs Prizes & offers
Business videos

Enter the latest Independent competitions

Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.

Heineken Hub Teaching jobs Networking 2012
Business videos

Business videos from commercial thought leaders

Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.

Heineken Hub Teaching jobs Networking 2012
Prizes & offers
Career Services

Day In a Page

Is Ridley Scott the most macho man in movies?

Ridley Scott: The most macho man in movies?

His cinematic CV is unparalleled. Yet the Alien director is still obsessed with beating his rivals.
Being Gary Lineker: The clean-cut anchorman is this summer's Mr Sport

Being Gary Lineker

The clean-cut anchorman is this summer's Mr Sport...
Gallic gourmets are putting French cuisine back on the culinary map

Gallic gourmets put France back on culinary map

Overdone, out of touch and old-fashioned: French cuisine has never been at a lower ebb...
So Moorish: Mark Hix offers his own take on classic Moroccan dishes

So Moorish: Mark Hix's Moroccan dishes

Why not create a north African-inspired feast to share with your friends?
Sin and the single mother: The history of lone parenthood

Sin and the single mother

Maureen Paton explores the history of lone parenthood.
The outsider: Margaret Howell is British fashion's queen of minimalism

The outsider: Margaret Howell

The designer tells Susannah Frankel why she has never felt part of the fashion industry.
The 50 Best luggage

The 50 Best luggage

From chic cases to compact baggage, pack it all in this summer
For men only: A pilgrimage to Mount Athos in Greece

For men only: A pilgrimage to Mount Athos

On a secluded peninsula in north-east Greece lies an enclave that's way off the tourist map, especially for women...
48 Hours In: Faro

48 Hours In: Faro

More than just the gateway to the Algarve, this city has much to tempt you off the beach.
Here, the coast is always clear: Celebrating sixty years of Pembrokeshire's National Park

60 years of Pembrokeshire's National Park

Mick Webb reveals a land of puffins, tanks and Hollywood blockbusters.
Free Range: Meet the designers of tomorrow

Free Range

Meet the artists of the future
Feeding a hungry world – or meddling with laws of nature?

Feeding a hungry world – or meddling with laws of nature?

As scientists at Rothamsted's GM trials plead with activists not to sabotage their work, Michael McCarthy visits the battle field
Monkey meat that could be behind the next HIV

Monkey meat that could be behind the next HIV

Deep in Cameroon's rainforests, poachers are killing primates for food. Evan Williams reports from Yokadouma on a practice that could create a pandemic
Catcalls, whistles, groping: just another day for a young woman

Catcalls, whistles, groping: just another day for a young woman

Government urged to take abuse more seriously as London study shows 41 per cent are harassed
Jailing of Maori separatists stirs colonial-era resentment

Jailing of Maori separatists stirs colonial-era resentment

Militant Tuhoe tribe members defiant amid claims race relations had been set back 100 years