Second City

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Birmingham is at the heart of British history. For two centuries and more the city has been a uniquely creative, hard-working and forceful place: both mirroring and shaping wider British trends. In his enjoyable and thoughtful new book, Richard Vinen tells the story of a city like no other. How did a place with none of the winning features of the other major English towns-no river, no port, no great aristocratic family, no cathedral-end up beating them all? Second City is full of perceptive and surprising stories about the Birmingham's industries, dynasties, neighbourhoods and visionaries, from Joseph Chamberlain and J. R. R. Tolkien to Duran Duran and Lenny Henry. It captures the vigour and noise of a place where every family was at some point a newcomer, making its way in an the often bewildering sprawl. This is a book about houses and factories, pubs and churches, shops and parks, and the reasons why so many people have, at one time or another, come to Birmingham. Birmingham is not a pretty place and its history does not always make for comfortable reading but it is hard to understand almost any aspect of modern Britain without taking this city into account.