A gorgeous literary hate letter to Manchester

The misery of Michel Butor’s Mancunian anti-detective fiction

Dear Millers — today’s piece takes us inside a “strange and mesmerising novel”, written by a French author who lived in Whalley Range and Ladybarn during the 1950s. In a wonderful piece, The Mill’s culture critic Sophie Atkinson got hold of a new edition of the book — and went to visit the places where Michel Butor lived, to try to understand his evident antipathy for the city. “Butor may have detested Manchester, but Manchester made Butor,” she writes.

This morning we got an email from a Miller called Sophie, responding to our item on Tameside in yesterday’s briefing. She writes:

I'm so pleased to see Tameside is getting recognition. My husband and I moved to Mossley six years ago from the city centre and we love it! It's a really friendly place with a surprising amount going on. A recent addition is the (re)launch of The Vale, a fantastic new arts centre and home to the Northern Carnival Centre of Excellence. Having Lily's [a vegegarian Indian restaurant] so close is also dangerous.…