I’ve been thinking about my big project for this year and it’s reached the point where I need to get it down before it morphs into something even more stupid and unattainable. So here it is.
I’m going to write a book.
Now, that doesn’t mean I’m actually going to publish a book – just that the “book” model seems like the best structure to work with. Chapters, a vague narrative structure, a fair amount of depth, that sort of thing. And if at the end of it someone wants to turn it into a proper book then that’ll be a nice bonus.
The book is going to be a travel guide to the Birmingham Outer Circle bus route, which is why it has to be a book because anything smaller will just be interminably dull. The basic format I’m planning on is as follows:
- Travelogue: accounts of visiting sections of the route from a personal perspective. Think Iain Sinclair, but only a little bit. They key here is “personal”.
- Photographs: looking more at the quirky details than grand panoramas (partly because there’s not much grand on the route).
- History: this is where it turns into something bigger. I intend to research each section of the route and discover how these areas came to be. This will involve going to the central library and diving headlong into the murky world of local history, but I know a couple of people who already swim there so at the very least I’ll have a guide.
- Maps: Every good travel book has maps but I’ll be looking at interesting ways of using them. An obvious thing will be to GeoTag the photos so they can be mapped around the route. It’d be interesting to do that with the words as well, not just have them reference a map but have that work the other way. There’s also the fact that the route is circular without a beginning or end so maybe he book should be too. That kind of stuff (most of which isn’t really book-like, but whatever.)
The plan to actually achieve this is fairly simple. The route will be dictated by where the Number 11 bus goes. I’ll chop this up into 20 or so manageable sections (the route is 27 miles long) basing each one around a specific landmark, such as Bearwood High Street or Winson Green Prison. I’ll then spend a day at each section taking photos and notes, followed by research, followed by a return visit. I’ll then write a draft chapter for the blog, fully expecting feedback to fill it out. Then when it’s all over I’ll do a few trips around the entire route to give it some continuity and structure and edit it all into a “book”.
After that, who the hell knows. Maybe it’ll get published and I’ll be able to retire on the earnings. Maybe I’ll just move to onto something else. Whatever happens, it should keep me nice and busy for the next 10 months, and that’s the important thing. I’ve been faffing around too much recently and need some kind of long term thing.
I’ll be looking to start this sometime in March when the weather improves and have all the field work done before October when the weather gets shit again.
Wish me luck…
Full credit for the seeds of this project must go to Diamond Geezer, without whom, etc.
I think this is jolly exciting! Best of luck with it.
Good Luck !
I’ll look forward to it. Let me know if there’s anything I can help with.
I think the historical aspect should be fascinating, and you could well end up writing the history of outer Birmingham. Only a little over a hundred years ago, for instance, the only building on what’s now Bearwood High Street was The Bear, and Sandford Road was an unmetalled track. Have a look at the early Ordnance Survey maps – they’ve got a ridiculously high level of detail.
But interesting as all that might be, the really important question is clockwise or anti-clockwise?
Clockwise or Anti clockwise: are we going forward in time or backward? A loop forward in the beginning, backward in retrospect? And where does the circle begin? Where the buses enter from the garage? From the stop nearest Pete’s house?
Aside from that, I love these kinds of journeys, and want to be part of the fun – so are there ways that other people might be drafted into this project? I know you said the emphasis is on ‘personal’, so maybe I’m off track already, and a collective effort should focus on some other thing.
Ideas are already proliferating. A cultural geography in the first person, a website of collected stories, a resource of places and activities. Interviewing bus riders, getting some of their stories. That would attract sponsorhsip from TWM, and could result in banners with snippets and prompt spin-offs along the way. Jeez, too much already!
But back to your idea. It’s brilliant, and I’m looking forward to seeing the first dispatches.
For some reason Clockwise seems the way to go. Not sure why. I’ll probably start here in Bournville, or maybe end in Bournville and start in Selly Oak, unless a more exicting starting point comes to mind. Of course if I can pull off the circular narrative thing then it won’t matter where it starts.
I think most of the busses start from Acock’s Green garage but I wouldn’t hold me to that.
As for drafting other people in, I think that’s a terrific idea, especially if they know something about the area but even if they don’t an extra pair of eyes is always useful. Once it gets going I’ll try and plan out a schedule of visits so folk can accompany me, or at least announce the next one on the blog.
As for spin-off ideas, that’s why I decided to write it down now! Need to keep it simple… Of course there’s nothing to stop other people spinning off my stuff, such is the nature of these things.
Thanks for the positive feedback – good to know I’m not being utterly stupid.
Just finished reading Attention All Shipping, can recommend it for some inspiration – author has a site as well – http://www.charlieconnelly.com
You are being utterly stupid, but it’s good stupid not bad stupid.
You remind me of the bloke from Julian Barnes’ Metroland.
Are you saying that people might actually be interested in an in-depth well-researched psychogeographical travelogue based on sights and historic places to be seen along some nationally insignificant public transport route unknown to the vast majority of the blog-reading public?
Yes, I think you’re right. Can’t wait!
Great idea, how about interesting people on the route? Most of my friends are either on/not far off the 11 and they’re all pretty eccentric.
Also don’t forget that the Centre Of The Earth is just off the 11 in Winson Green.
K
Nice idea, good luck with it.
My genealogist spouse says that the Birmingham Central Library is a very special place. It may look 60s crap but it has a lot of character and and an even larger amount of of Brum-centric information. Better get in there before they lose everything moving it to Eastside!
My childhood memories of the No. 11 (I didn’t take it much myself) was that you saw it on the Stratford Road where the River Rea crosses it and then you would see it again somewhere else! And of course they were always the cream and dark royal blue city buses. I was always a radial traveler in those days (No. 151 Midland Red from Earlswood to St. Martins in the Bull Ring) so the idea of going round the city was for someone else!
My favorite city bus was the Lodge Road 96. I don’t think it has a modern equivalent, or does it? Anyway, it went up Newhall Hill where I got off. I never did go all the way to Lodge Road! My Aunt Lizzie lived up Rotten Park Road and I think that was the No.7 to Portland Road.
And another piece of trivia. In those days city buses stopped at the city boundary. If you wanted to travel to Shirley (why would you?) you had to take a Midland Red as the city buses stopped at the end of the Hall Green dual carriageway. It was the same on all the main roads out of Brum.
Well, enough reminiscing, it’s bad for the brain. Your big project sounds like a great idea. Somehow you have to bring in a different dimension and I don’t think you have to know that heads up. It might come to you quite late in the project. But that will be the making of the story. I promise!
I like the historical aspect of the project but that’s because I am getting on in years! I am worried that there might not be a No. 11 in a few years time.
Start here…
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/source.asp?pubid=104
Those crazy Victorians.
“My childhood memories of the No. 11 …”
Another brilliant prospect. Part of the trip can go backwards, through time!
Memories of the route… I’ve seen something done this way…. what was it? Interspersing contemporary and remembered segments, first person and otherwise. Accounts of current and former travellers, picking up bits of other people’s journeys. How do you feel about having fictional or semi-fictional elements? William Hutton and William Cobbett come to mind as Brummie journeyers. They wouldn’t have ridden the No. 11, but the 11 may cross their paths.
I think you may need a special page for collecting people’s memories….
e-tat: Your ideas are great but given the scale of this task and the fact that I’ve never done anything like this before (especially the history stuff) I need to keep the rules simple.
Of course if other aspects to crop up during specific sections then that’ll be great but if I start off wanting to get oral histories for every section or whatever then I’ll never get anywhere.
At the end of the day the journey of writing this thing will give it shape. Right now it’s circular and kinda basic – who knows what it’ll be when it finally put it all together!
Agreed. This is blue-sky thinking on my part, and difficult to resist adding ideas. It’s just that there are so many interesting tangents that it could keep a squadron of people busy all year. Which is another way of pointing out that a bigger project would be viable, and that a loose affiliation of different people doing different bits would be worth considering. An allied project perhaps.
Your Google Map planner looks to be a great tool. Something I tried with a travelogue I wrote recently (it’s here) was to add links to satellite images on Google Local, with the featured location in the center of the view.
Unfortunately only the eastern half of Brum appears to be covered by high resolution satellite/airphoto imagery on Google Local but I think there is more detailed coverage on Google Earth. For which you will need OS X 10.4.
I would really like to add Google Earth oblique images of some of my hiking travelogues as this would really help convey the route, the terrain and provide a geo-reference for the photos, but of course the resolution over Welsh Mountains does not provide the detail. These things will come in time though.
I wish you the best of luck with your book; and I hope it turns out to be a huge success. My plans are to write a book as well. I have never done it before, but I am going to give it my best effort. If time allows, please keep me informed of your progress. Again, best of luck.
Kemmy