Jacob Polley, in his novel Talk of the Town (Picador), perfectly captures the claustrophobia and boredom of adolescents on the hinge of adulthood, jarring it into the border-town of his native Carlisle; which, as his protagonist Christopher Hearsey quotes as an opener, ‘stinks’. The week in which we meet Chris, two major news stories are…
Posted on 26th January 2011