Made in Britain

Gavin James Bower's second novel, Made In Britain, couldn't be timelier. In the wake of the riots, everyone wants to get to the heart of just who exactly this feral underclass is, what these young people are thinking and what is their capacity for violence, love, consumerism and industry. Made In Britain addresses these issues with a prescient watchful eye that follows three very different but very trapped teenagers in an unnamed Northern town, where the only opportunities available are escape, auditioning for the X Factor or illegal activities.

Made in Britain follows three teenagers, Hayley - naive and easily infatuated, Russell - quiet and dreaming of escape, and Charlie - they wanna do him or be him, as they navigate the embers of a town post-industrial boom, post-industrial fallout. School offers no respite. The closed youth clubs, libraries and minds offer no respite. The lack of ability to afford anything that capitalism shoves in their faces offers no respite. Charlie gets involved with the wrong crowd. Hayley follows Charlie around. Russell is an emotional crutch for his mum as he dreams of escape, of girls and of his 'other.' They careen towards a violent conclusion.

Bower's sophomore book is more mature, more bittersweet and more textured than his first and speaks volumes about the youth of today. It is stylised and written with a gritty precision, peppered with his trademark pop culture references and oblique imagery. A relevant timely and moving book about small town suffocation and the dying embers of capitalism.