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.
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.
Image 1 of 1
