cement, terraces - Lydia Unsworth

“From the Arndale to the Dutch Pancake House, places present and past are explored in this psychogeographer’s dream – and an Oulipian’s too, each anagram deftly arranged. Limiting letters does not limit these pieces, highly crafted, some offering puzzles, others set in concrete form. Constraint breeds creativity; the kernel, the seed of an idea becomes a fully grown specimen. Down the culverted River Medlock, up the stairs of Mr Smith’s Dream, cement, terraces takes the reader on a trip around Manchester like you’ve never experienced, and it’s one you’ll want to keep going back to. Grab your Magic DayRider, let’s dérive.”
Sarah-Clare Conlon

“Lydia Unsworth uses the alphabet itself as her palette to paint a layered watercolor of urban complexity. cement, terraces is a lipogrammatic daydream — a sonic wash of texture, dialect, doors, and crowds that carries the reader downriver, nonstop. Unsworth shows us how to row on our own tortuous, sonorous rush.”
Luke Bradford