EDGELANDS by Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts reviewed by Sean O’Brien

Edgelands in England are for the most part the zone of the in-between, places
neither urban nor rural, often marked by desire paths, dead cars and
hawthorn trees. They are likely to have an industrial history but they may
also simply be places where suburbs have run out of steam and money. They
escape inclusion in plans, or have been included but have managed to sustain
a sense of difference despite the planners’ intentions. At some point, the
powers that be will come for them and convert them for retail development or
a business park, but on that day the edgelands will move further down the
road and out of sight and somehow persist to undermine and complicate the
new developments. In spirit, edgelands are untidy, improvised, accidental,
secret and quite likely a risk to health. For many people of a certain age
and background they are more real than the countryside to which the
city-dweller’s aspirations have long been directed. For one thing, edgelands
are accessible; for another, it can seem, at least for a time, as if no one
owns them...