Hello lovely email friends. Hope you’re okay. As a handful of you know, once the pandemic had arrived on these shores last year, I left London and headed northwards. I try and base all those pesky big life decisions on Alex Garland screenplays. I’ve been camping out in Birmingham: unattractive by reputation but, I now realise, this is just a means of keeping Londoners away.
If you can live with agricultural connectivity and a lack of—nay, contempt for—public transport, then Telly Savalas was right: there are a great many things to like about Birmingham. Not only friendly people and extensive leisure and shopping opportunities, but also fine satirical artworks and an actual chocolate factory.
The place has enormous potential to turn its car dependency into a world-class cycling infrastructure; it wouldn’t take much. But the best thing about Birmingham, so far, is that you can go to the cinema and watch a whole feature-length movie for just £6. Maybe it’s similar where you are, but in my old haunt that would barely cover the booking fee. Six pounds, bab!
Incidentally, Savalas didn’t come here; he recorded his voiceover in London. The fool! Come for the chocolate, stay for the cinema tickets.
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