Book they tried to kill finally comes out of the darkness

Stoke-d by ControversyA long-awaited travel book on Stoke-on-Trent – described as offensive, objectionable and inappropriate by one of the UK's leading publishing houses - is about to get its first public airing.

The book, Out of the Darkness, takes a road-trip round Staffordshire revealing how it changed from the ancient grime and smog-ridden home of the world famous pottery industry to become a burgeoning centre for commerce and the arts.

It's a personal journey round the Six Towns for writer and broadcaster Leigh G Banks which began in the early 1960s when as a child he visited Trentham Gardens with his grandmother, Ada. Later, he became a fan of Burslem's Northern Soul fame and in the book he talks vividly about his experiences at the notorious 1970s Hollywood rock festival near Leek.

In the 1990s he upped sticks from Manchester and moved to Staffordshire but it wasn't until beginning to research Out of the Darkness in 2011 he discovered that many of his ancestors hailed from Slindon, near Eccleshall.

Leigh said: “It was clear my grandmother was drawn to the Six Towns although she never told me about our family connections. But every chance we'd get we'd jump on a bus or a train from Manchester and visit for the day.

“I suppose because I came from a dirty old city like Manchester I was never offended by the grime of Stoke but what I was fascinated by even as a child were the buildings and the architecture. I found it all majestic.

“I would wander the streets for hours just looking up, looking up … that's part of the ethos of the book, look up in the Six Towns, much of the history is above your head in the friezes and inscriptions on the buildings.”

Three years ago Leigh got a call from the international publisher, the History Press, commissioning him to write a book on the towns.

“I didn't approach them with the idea, they came to me,” Leigh said: “I liked the thought of taking a look at the towns, their history and how they'd changed against a backdrop of my childhood.”

By chance Leigh, from Woodseaves, near Eccleshall, met up with photographer Ian Pearsall at Barewall Galleries, Burslem, where he was exhibiting some of his art-photos of the Six Towns.

Leigh said: “I love his work, it captures the heart of area, the starkness, the darkness, the grime and the gloom but then he turns it into something glorious and heart-lifting. We hit it off and decided to collaborate.”

Ian, aged 44, from Newcastle, said: “It seemed a brilliant opportunity, we thought the same about the conurbation, we could both see its dark side but also the over-powering beauty of the project.”

But last year things started to go wrong.

“Out of the Darkness was being advertised on Amazon and on all the major book sites, we'd been given a launch day and had arranged a venue and a couple of lucrative deals with major stores and then, out of the blue, the rug was pulled from under us. It was a real shock.”

Correspondence from the managing director of the History Press, Mr Tim Davies, said 'our advisers share our view that much of the content of your book may be considered offensive, objectionable or inappropriate by some readers and consequently may harm the reputation of The History Press, and potentially damage our relationship with both our readers and our trade customers'.

`They were objecting to phrases and paragraphs in the book including:

• Pubs reeked on every corner.

• Stoke was becoming a slum while the Victorian super-rich lived in imposing elevated red brick mansions. They were closer to God up there.

• Let’s begin at Trentham’s highly technical new round-about with it’s dozen or so drunken lampposts and its already grimy black and white road sign pointing to all the roads that lead to the heart of this story.

Leigh said: “The objection to the description of the Trentham round-about was the funniest though! Who in their right mind would be offended by the description of drunken lampposts – what if we'd said they were bent!

“We couldn't believe it … I've made my living as a writer for more than 30 years and Ian is a successful photographer, we're not amateurs and know exactly what we are doing. Why they adopted that attitude to the book I will never really understand. But it was that important to them not to publish they broke the contract and paid us off.”

Ian said: “At first it seemed like that was that and we'd both wasted our time – then we had the idea of touring the pictures and words round local galleries. It gives people the chance to see our work, see what we produced and tell us if they are really offended. We are actually bringing our art to the streets of Stoke-on-Trent.”

Because of the disappointment over the abandoning of the book Leigh decided to record a radio show to fill his music spot on Breeze Radio lampooning the History Press and explaining what had gone wrong.

He said: “A lot of people were interested and a number of book shops had put in orders – and a major supermarket had wanted to stock it, so we thought we'd better let people know what had gone on. People heard I was going to do the show and started sending in requests – I ended up playing music by Legendary Lonnie, Lemmy, Robbie and even Jackie Trent! It's a really good show.”

You can see extracts from the book and photographs at a month-long exhibition being hosted by the Zest Cafe Bistro, in Hanley, opposite The Regent Theatre from April 22 with opening night with author Leigh G Banks and photographer Ian Pearsall is on April 24. Get a preview at http://www.flowerbox.org.uk/

Listen to The Trip on www.breeze-radio.com - it's tells the whole story!

For more info call Leigh G Banks, leighgbanks1@gmail.com

Listen to The Trip on www.breeze-radio.com - it's tells the whole story!