John Tanner
John Tanner’s verse has appeared in various magazines, in the anthology, The Lie of the Land, and in two collections of his work, Pieces and How to Make an America. John is also the author of another HeB publication, Landscapes of Language, a study of the American writer, Richard Brautigan. He was a journalist and then a publishing executive before a dramatic change of direction saw him return to university, be awarded a PhD in English literature by Bangor University and become a part-time tutor there and a writer.
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Author: John Tanner
Number of Pages: 71
From the Edge is a striking, genre-defying memoir by John Tanner. Told through a collage of anecdotes, character sketches, and verse, the book transports readers to Cwmbran in the 1950s and 60s—a village balanced on the edge of the South Wales coalfield. Through the eyes of a teenage narrator, Tanner explores a world where heavy industry dictated life, death, and identity. The narrative captures the deep contradictions of this working-class culture: the fierce pride and simultaneous sense of inferiority, the reverence for education as an "escape hatch from a life of labour", and the intoxicating lure of American pop culture streaming in through the radio and local cinema. From the Edge is a tribute to a "mongrel-migrant tribe" and a vital exploration of what remains when a region's foundations fall away.From the Edge is a striking, genre-defying memoir by John Tanner. Told through a collage of anecdotes, character sketches, and verse, the book transports readers to Cwmbran in the 1950s and 60s—a village balanced on the edge of the South Wales coalfield. Through the eyes of a teenage narrator, Tanner explores a world where heavy industry dictated life, death, and identity. The narrative captures the deep contradictions of this working-class culture: the fierce pride and simultaneous sense of inferiority, the reverence for education as an "escape hatch from a life of labour", and the intoxicating lure of American pop culture streaming in through the radio and local cinema. From the Edge is a tribute to a "mongrel-migrant tribe" and a vital exploration of what remains when a region's foundations fall away.