Manchester Kiss, man'chis-ter kis, (slang) n.
a knuckle sandwich, cranially-applied.
(Oxbridge English Dictionary)
- Published by Limited Edition Press, 2006.
-
- ISBN 1 859 88 067 3
- Available in paperback.
- £14.99 inclusive of FREE p&p by return post (from the UK) for an autographed copy with generic bookmark - if you mention Bill's website www.novelnovella.com
- Cheques should be made payable to Bill Keeth.
Manchester Kiss is about a group of north Manchester people at
the turn of the new Millennium, a few of whom – Tony Dinch and Shirlee,
Vic Jameson and Byron Marlfield, Avis Wild nee Henstone and Idle – were
first encountered in Bill Keeth’s debut novel, Every Street in
Manchester. Patrons of the same public house, they confront the reader
(and each other) with personal reminiscences, observations, and opinions,
by means of which they give voice to their many grievances, aspirations,
and fears.
Ranging as it does between the 1950s and the present day, the narrative drift of Manchester Kiss, like the workings of human memory itself, is presented neither chronologically nor, indeed, sequentially. And it is this episodic nature of the work which allows it to be read in any order without in any way affecting the interrelationship of characters and events.
A particular effect of this structure is to suggest an aerial overview
from which readers may
“parachute” down (if they dare), making landfall where they will
at any particular point in time and space in a part of north Manchester which
a recent Government study described as being “the most deprived neighbourhood
in England”*
* Indices of Deprivation, pub. Office of the Deputy Prime Minister,
May 2004.
N.B. Included amongst the individual chapters are 37 photographs selected from the collection at the Archives and Local Studies Deptartment at Manchester Central Library (Telephone 0161 234 1980). These photographs, taken between the 1950's and the present, illustrate the area in which the action takes place in Every Street in Manchester and Manchester Kiss.