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MIKE GAYLE
Write-on author’s turned right off ‘smug’ Chorlton
Nick Towle15/ 9/2005
IT’S widely regarded as south Manchester’s cultural and bohemian capital.
With its chic bars, eco-friendly restaurants and vegan delicatessens, Chorlton’s star has shone so bright it has at times threatened to dazzle its ‘unenlightened’ neighbours.
In fact there’s just one thing wrong with Chorlton – and that’s Chorltonians, according to best-selling author Mike Gayle.
The Birmingham-based novelist, who set his latest book in Chorlton, says the well-meaning residents of Chorlton have been munching on organic lettuce for too long and are now basking in the glow of some assumed moral high ground.
In short, he thinks Chorltonians are “too smug”.
Parody
The 34-year-old Brummie even says the things he loves about the area – namely its trendy attitudes, left-liberal leanings and trendy boutiques – have, by and large, become grotesque parodies of themselves.
Mike said: “Chorlton is incredibly smug and pleased with itself. A lot of the cafe-bars, vegan delis and gastro pubs are very smug. Basically, the reason why I love it is the reason I hate it. Part of you loves it for being what it is, and for having all those wonderful things on your doorstep, and the other part hates it.”
He added: “You do get these people in Chorlton who seem to be really pleased with themselves.”
Mike’s love-hate relationship with Chorlton – he often visits old university friends who still live there – inspired him to base his latest novel, Brand New Friend, in its bohemian heartlands.
Perfect
He says he found the perfect setting for his novel among the ‘Guardian-reading, yoga-loving, arthouse types’ and left-leaning young professionals
The book’s storyline follows the travails of a worrysome thirtysomething called Rob who moves to Chorlton from London to be with his girlfriend Ashley, and struggles to make new male friends.
In a chapter of the book headlined ‘Rob’s first Monday morning in Manchester’, the central character reflects on the bewildering array of vegeterian eateries and cultural diversions in Chorlton – but there is a definite hint of scorn in the subtext.
The second chapter reads: ‘Rob had never lived anywhere like Chorton in his life: it bore about as much similarity to Tooting as Clacton-on-Sea might to the French Riviera. Before Rob had started coming to Chorlton regularly to visit Ashley, he had never seen such a high concentration of vegan delicatessens, boutiques, cafe bars, gastro pubs and restaurants outside places like Hampstead or Brighton.
“And, as far as he could determine, the entire area was chiefly populated by Guardian readers, actors, senior medical staff, vegans, journalists, musicians, BBC employees, Reiki healers and, that catch-all phrase for the educated and affluent, ‘young professionals’."
Returned
Mike, a married father-of-one studied at Salford University but afterwards moved back to his home town.
On his regular visits to Chorlton to see friends, Mike saw striking similarities between the south Manchester suburb and fashionable areas of London.
Throughout the book, references are made to Chorlton’s cultural and gastronomic insititutions such as Kingbee Records and the North Star Deli on Wilbraham Road.
Mike’s oxymoronic take on the Chorlton lifestyle is given extra spice by his love of the Horse and Jockey pub – “I was gobsmacked at how great it was” – and his admiration for the area itself.
“I was always envious of the fabulous lifestyle in Chorlton,” he confesses. “In Birmingham we haven’t really got anything like it.”
But Mike’s idealised version of Chorlton as a cultural beacon, and his depiction of its inhabitants as being a little too smug for their own good, has drawn criticism from some Chorltonians.
Stereotype
Film-maker Jason Wingard, who has lived in Chorlton all his life, said Gayle was being too stereotypical.
The 34-year-old from Neale Road said: “It’s easy to boil it down to some obvious cliches. Chorlton is not necessarily smug. You have to search beneath the surface to get a proper understanding of the place.
“Chorlton is now portrayed in this way because people like Gayle make snap judgements in the short time they are here. The people who have lived in Chorlton all their lives are down-to-earth Mancunians.
“The mistake people make is to generalise Chorltonians as Guardian-reading lefties and lettuce-munchers.”
BRAND New Friend was published by Hodder Trade Paperback priced £10.99
Is Chorlton too twee? Have your say
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Tis the truth.
2/02/2006 at 12:04
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