Iron Towns

The Iron Towns: once the furnace heart of industrial England, before that farmed and toiled over, before that green and deep-forested, a place of folk legends. Now the old docks and cranes and steelworks are rusting away, and the town's once great football club with them. Liam Corwen grew up here, and is playing out his career at Irontowns FC. The club's history rests on his shoulders; in some ways, the history of football itself does too, tattoos of the game's greatest players etched all over Liam's body. But it is his own past that drags him down. Twenty years ago he and his friends had life stretching ahead of them: dreams of stardom, young marriages, money in their pockets. Twenty years ago two devastating events halted their youth abruptly; now they must finally face up to the past. Iron Town s tells the story of Liam, his friends and his generation, and their place in an old, forgotten England. But it is also a sweeping, magisterial novel about the... The Iron Towns: once the furnace heart of industrial England, before that farmed and toiled over, before that green and deep-forested, a place of folk legends. Now the old docks and cranes and steelworks are rusting away, and the town's once great football club with them. Liam Corwen grew up here, and is playing out his career at Irontowns FC. The club's history rests on his shoulders; in some ways, the history of football itself does too, tattoos of the game's greatest players etched all over Liam's body. But it is his own past that drags him down. Twenty years ago he and his friends had life stretching ahead of them: dreams of stardom, young marriages, money in their pockets. Twenty years ago two devastating events halted their youth abruptly; now they must finally face up to the past. This book tells the story of Liam, his friends and his generation, and their place in an old, forgotten England

Twenty years ago, Liam Corwen and Dee Dee Ahmed were on the cusp of a better future, Liam as a promising footballer and Dee Dee as a singer in a girl band. Now they're both eking out an existence back in their home town.

As the old steelworks rust and the local football club limps towards relegation and liquidation, Dee Dee recalls the tragic events that changed their lives. Liam thinks back to the great players of the past, and wonders: could redemption, greatness even, still wait for them, here among the abandoned cranes and docks and housing estates?

Evoking the landscape and myth of old, forgotten England, Iron Towns is a story of our dreams of youth, football, and industrial progress - and what happens when those dreams recede into the past.

New paperback edition featuring Cartwright's acclaimed essay on the EU referendum.

Twenty years ago, Liam Corwen and Dee Dee Ahmed were on the cusp of a better future, Liam as a promising footballer and Dee Dee as a singer in a girl band. Now they're both eking out an existence back in their home town. As the old steelworks rust and the local football club limps towards relegation and liquidation, Dee Dee recalls the tragic events that changed their lives. Liam thinks back to the great players of the past, and wonders: could redemption, greatness even, still wait for them, here among the abandoned cranes and docks and housing estates? Evoking the landscape and myth of old, forgotten England, Iron Towns is a story of our dreams of youth, football, and industrial progress - and what happens when those dreams recede into the past. New paperback edition featuring Cartwright's acclaimed essay on the EU referendum. The breakout novel from the award-winning author of How I Killed Margaret Thatcher.