Premier novelist Kerry Hudson, author of Thirst and Lowborn, reviewed Glen James Brown's debut novel Ironopolis for The Guardian. Hudson has routinely advocated for working class writers and her praise of Ironopolis is a welcome sign that Glen will become established in these ranks.
Hudson intuited Glen's passion for this demographic, calling the book a 'labour of love' and correctly identifying how the council estate is a character unto itself. Additionally, she had her finger on the book's pulse, writing this at the end of the review:
When the literary depiction of working-class communities is often reduced to a lazy shorthand of grit and misery, this unflinching, clear-eyed and overall deeply human depiction of an estate’s glory days and its eventual decline is nothing short of a triumph.
To read her full review of Ironopolis, click here. You can order Ironopolis from Parthian Books here.