Manchester: Something Rich and Strange

Using 60 different words that speak of the city, from bees to sewers, Manchester: something rich and strange offers a new way of thinking about this iconic post-industrial city. Twenty-three writers from diverse backgrounds offer their take on the everyday things that inform how we experience Manchester, recognising that we’re all active in the making and unmaking of the city’s spaces.
What is Manchester? Moving far from the glitzy shopping districts and architectural showpieces, away from cool city-centre living and modish cultural centres, this book shows us the unheralded, under-appreciated and overlooked parts of Greater Manchester in which the majority of Mancunians live, work and play. It tells the story of the city thematically, using concepts such a ‘material’, ‘atmosphere’, ‘waste’, ‘movement’ and ‘underworld’ to challenge our understanding of the quintessential post-industrial metropolis. Bringing together contributions from twenty-five writers from across the region alongside a range of captivating photographs, this book explores the history of Manchester through its chimneys, cobblestones, ginnels and graves. This wide-ranging and inclusive approach reveals a host of idiosyncrasies, hidden spaces and stories that have hitherto been neglected.