Book Review - Eve Nortley - Born to Brum

Bio:

From the Jewellery Quarter to the Bull Ring, from Victorian Arcades to colourful bear sculptures and ‘the Floozy in the Jacuzzi’ Birmingham is full of hidden treasures… and for, Poet Eve Nortley powerful and sometimes poignant memories. Join this daughter of Brum as she writes the heartbeat of her Midlands past’

Review: 

I first met Eve Nortley a few years ago pre lockdown certainly through a Spoken Word Open Mic night Gordon Zola used to run in Prestwich and somewhere over this period purchased a copy of “Love And Lust In Bury And Rochdale” (the first split book she has done with the wonderful Chris Bainbridge which is due to get reissued also shortly) and considering I know she is now active as a member of the Poetry / Comedy act Chalk N Cheese with Gordon Zola, I was a little surprised to then she is her first solo poetry collection.

Reflecting on her background in Birmingham, this is a vibrant easy to read but most of all well written collection starting off with the excellent ‘6am’ Birmingham, U.K. which is a great introduction to the book and her upbringing in Birmingham. Her description of Grand Central made me think of Manchester at 6am in my own not too far away past and it’s own tinfoil brittle beauty that I firmly believe you can only really see just before the day begins.

Besides the use of real life places like the BullRing (which I have being stuck nearby in traffic at least twice), Eve’s book has a loving of food in particular her poems Cadbury’s World / Chocolate City Dreams (which I had forgotten was established in Birmingham all the way back in 1824 and Brummie Bacon Cakes (which I haven’t heard off before but am curious about now) from her piece ‘Food to Improve your mood’.

Apart from the finale piece ‘Seamus twomey’ which finishes the book on a surprisingly downbeat note, my favourite piece ‘Can you feel it?’ explores the multi culture of Birmingham’s music scene like Manchester and Liverpool’s touching on stories involving The Deltas, Spencer Davies and his group onto Steel Pulse etc displaying how in it’s own way Birmingham is as much a cultural city as Manchester or Liverpool’s

and Eve Nortley deserves our attention and respect for reflecting about it in such a beautiful way.

8/10