In The Heart of The City

by Cath Staincliffe

Genres: General Fiction

Synopsis

he lives of a teenager and a woman in her forties collide as the 2011 riots hit Manchester. An eloquent and passionate exploration of the week that shook Britain. 9th August 2011 and as rioting erupts in Manchester a teenager and a woman in her forties are caught up in the thick of the disorder. Their stories intertwine to give a stunning and haunting expose of the people behind the headlines and the legacy of that night. This ebook short also includes an extended extract from Cath Staincliffe's forthcoming novel, Split Second.

Release date: October 31, 2011

Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

Print pages: 160

Sample

In the Heart of the City

These streets are mine, that’s what I’m thinking. Unbelievable, bruv. We’re all here: Coxie and
Jonny and Stella, all the crew from the estate. There’s this buzz – like massive. We go down Market Street and then along into St Ann’s Square. More people coming all the time.
Waves of them, like they’re turning up for a rave or something. Yeah, like a sea of us, you know. Everyone hoods up, bandannas on. My heart’s booming, a pulse so sweet and fierce and
the blood zipping round like it’s on fire. Totally alive. Like we’d all woken up and decided to do this thing, not taking no shit no more. So we took to the streets. Yeah. Our
streets.

First I hear is a message from Coxie, saying meet in Piccadilly Gardens. I let Stella know, but she already does. We’re all going, everyone’s going to be there. Solid. We seen the
news: Tottenham, Croydon, Birmingham, now it’s our turn. We take the baton.

The Dibble do nothing for long enough. We turn a corner and they’re there and they don’t even have shields. They’re statues, bruv. Can’t touch us. That feeling! Like the
buzz from a game, GTA or COD, ambush or firefight and everything inside you jumps, but bigger. Real.

That feeling; together, on a roll, no one to stop us. Maybe once in a lifetime you get that. Guess if you’re in the army, got a gun, popping the Taliban, you get that sort of kick, but the
rest of us? Seeing people get out of your way. Taking what you want.

There’re loads of little kids and some older people, but mainly it’s peeps our age from the shit parts of town, but it’s like we’re all on the same team, even though
we’ve never met before. We get into T-Mobile while there’s still some shit left. Coxie’s crowing and Jonny’s hollering and I get myself a BlackBerry and another one for
Stella. Sound, bruv. Round on King Street someone’s broken into Diesel and we go . . .