The epilogue points the way forward to the development of class relations in the nineteenth century and the increasing importance of the relationship between Britain and Ireland. Percy Bysshe Shelley’s pamphlet, An Address to the Irish People (1812), made the case that the working classes of Ireland and Britain had a common cause in their need to overthrow tyranny in order to advance the cause of justice and equality. Shelley was an unusual pioneer in making these connections and understanding that historical processes united people beyond their immediate context. The political arguments advocated in his later writings are informed by his understanding of the interconnected nature of Britain and Ireland, and a wider sense of global injustice that would become apparent to more writers in the nineteenth century.

This chapter looks firstly at an East-African Asian chicken shop to understand how history, heritage and humour intertwine in everyday multicultural Leicester. It then turns to the poetry of Leicester writer Carol Leeming, examining the ways in which her work complicates official representations of multiculturalism broadcast to the world. The stereotyped tropes of ‘steelbands, saris and samosas’ are challenged, as close readings of Leicester texts shed light on theoretical alternatives to civic multiculturalism.

This section sheds light upon the post-war context of Nottingham’s multicultural, working-class communities, before exploring their dynamic, interactive and accessible literary creations. Particular emphasis is placed on African Caribbean and white British authors through readings of selected Nottingham texts. This introduction contextualises ‘Notts’ cultural expression as diverse as Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1958); a digital app that immerses walkers in the streets of Sillitoe’s fiction; the Afrocentric (out)spoken word collective ‘Blackdrop’; and a publicly funded campaign to celebrate the city’s literary rebels. By mapping a brief microhistory at the intersection of Nottingham’s white working-class and African Caribbean communities, it explore how commonalities and differences of experience manifest in the city’s cohesive, yet heterogenous range of literary voices.

The conclusion summarises the key findings for each of the places discussed in the book. It then draws out the commonalities across the region, before reflecting on the policy implications of these findings and, finally, considering the future of literature and the wider creative economy in the Midlands.

Chapter 9 analyses the push and pull factors which cause Midlands creatives to relocate to London. While a select few West Midlands writers have gone on to achieve widespread acclaim and recognition within a London-centric literary infrastructure, some creatives from the region feel the local cultural ecosystem is not conducive to what educational psychologist Carol Dweck calls a ‘growth mindset’. (Mis)perceptions of the region as lacking in cultural prowess may in fact have real-world consequences for those Midlanders seeking careers in the creative industries – not only with regards scant external funding but also the extent to which personal advancement may be interpreted negatively at the local level.

Chapter 6 interrogates the notion of Birmingham as a ‘non-place’, seeking clarity on where this (mis)conception originates and emphasising the city’s unique creative aesthetics. It achieves this through close readings and original interviews with Costa prize-winning Irish-Brummie author Catherine O’Flynn. Her fictional representations of Birmingham are considered in parallel with the ‘grand narratives’ of the city as it developed in the latter half of the twentieth century, in order to understand how the personal sub-narratives of the city are both critical of, and informed by, the bigger vision.

Chapter 2 examines issues of class, hierarchy and class consciousness in the late fourteenth century, principally through a study of three major works: William Langland’s Piers Plowman, in particular the relationship between this literary text and the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381; Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales and its relationship to the genre of medieval estates satire as well as social reality; and John Gower’s Vox Clamantis. Piers Plowman emerges as an excoriating attack on the corruption of English society in the late fourteenth century, as principles of profit threaten to sweep away the last vestiges of society’s moral order. Langland celebrates the dignity of ordinary labour but concludes that a self-sufficient, functioning society cannot be achieved until a point in the distant future, if at all before the return of Christ. Instead, the task of the dutiful Christian citizen must be to save souls not society. Chaucer has often been contrasted to Langland as a poet who sneered at the pretensions of social climbers. Through an analysis of The Miller’s Tale and The Reeve’s Tale the chapter shows that, like Langland, the more urban-focussed Chaucer also saw a society in disarray, falling prey to the forces of greed and commercialization. His satirical attacks are less concerned with individual classes than the failures of the collective whole. In contrast, Gower has no problem in blaming the rebellious peasants for England’s social ills and, accordingly, he dehumanizes them as ignorant beasts.

Chapter 6 studies the relationship between literature and class from the onset of the agricultural revolution to the impact of the French Revolution. Adam Smith saw the benefits of the division of labour, which could create hitherto unimaginable prosperity. Others saw a future characterized by alienation from nature and the destruction of stabile communities. While enthusiasts for ballads and the poems of the bardic Ossian looked to recover what they could of the past, the middle-class cult of sensibility, introduced by Henry McKenzie’s novel, The Man of Feeling and other works, created a culture that enabled readers to condemn what they witnessed without having to take action. Frances Burney’s novels condemn the exploitation of servants, and the ways in which a culture of politeness is deployed to disguise vicious class bullying. George Crabbe and William Cowper demonstrate that other writers were also aware of the increasingly dangerous class divisions that were emerging in the 1780s. Robert Burns also developed his belief in a common humanity, writing in support of the American War of Independence against British occupation. Edmund Burke’s attack on the French Revolution led to a number of responses. Mary Wollstonecraft and Thomas Paine argued that the upper class had to be removed in order for society to progress. William Blake opposed Adam Smith’s belief in the division of labour through his integrated artistic practices; William Wordsworth (and Samuel Taylor Coleridge) produced poetry that used ‘the language of conversation in the middle and lower classes of society’.

This study of selected post-war texts from Birmingham looks to the built environment to better understand the development of a unique, multi-faceted literary aesthetic. Perhaps more than any other city within the pages of this book, Birmingham tears down and rebuilds; funds and defunds; nurtures and neglects. This introduction interrogates the interplay between the evolution of the physical fabric of the city and the ‘super-diversity’ of the communities who inhabit it. In doing so, it establishes the sociohistorical contexts which are preconditions for the wealth of vibrant literature inspired by multicultural Birmingham.