大象传媒

Spent today walking the streets of 1831 Belfast with the writer Glenn Patterson.听And the city hustled and bustled as noisily as it would have done on a Monday lunchtime 181 years ago,听although you didn't have to shout to be heard over听bus engines then. More likely nothing more intrusive than a horse-drawn gig or maybe even a sedan chair. I couldn't get over how noisy the city centre was. Between buses, buskers, bypassers,听one-sided mobile phone conversations, newspaper vendors, piped music from shops, it was the height of cacophony! But Glenn reckoned that in 1831, a听Monday lunchtime in Belfast would have been just as noisy. I didn't want to argue as he has just written a mighty book on that time, including not only sounds, but sights and smells too. You can smell the streets (they don't smell pretty).听

Glenn's new book 鈥淭he Mill for Grinding Old People Young鈥� is听a historical love letter to his home town, his many layered听research worn lightly, in a way very similar to Joseph O'Connor's 鈥淪tar of the Sea鈥�. The characters are writ large, against the social, political and economic history.

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Gilbert Rice is the central character, introduced听first as an 85-year-old in 1897, then taking us back to听his teenage self, in 1831, living with his grandfather on what is now Royal Avenue.听We听stood outside what are now the Clarkes and Zara shops where the house would have been,听with Glenn colouring in how the street was mainly residential back then. The young Gilbert then got a job听working in the Ballast office at the busy City Port, getting drunk, falling in love and听getting exercised about the Donegalls who owned Belfast. There's a beautiful sense of a rite of passage for the young man and for the reader too who is on that journey of discovery with him.

It's almost like we are time travellers, with all our knowledge of what is to happen to Belfast in the future, from the yet to be built听City Hall to the sinking of the Titanic to two World Wars to civil unrest to powersharing.听听

Glenn听said that he found the mid 1800s fascinating, 30 odd years after the 1798 uprising,听many of the people听who took part in that were still around were politicians and business people,听in a way, he says, similar to contemporary Northern Ireland.听

Off mike, he was still pointing out remnants of the past - 听alleyways, buildings and streets that map out听how little the city has changed, holding onto its past with pride. It's no coincidence that the publishers of Glenn's book, which he finished writing a year ago, have held off publication to the Titanic centenary. The city is now ready to face the horror of the听tragedy of the Titanic,听and remember it as it was when it left here. Likewise Glenn's book takes us back in time, to a听people and a place that fed Titanic听Town and shaped听what this place, despite all that has happened, remains.听

It's a great read. I'm just sorry that I've finished it.

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"The Mill for Grinding Old People Young" by Glenn Patterson is published by Faber on 15^th March.

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