The Birmingham Guide to Birmingham Guide Books

Ben Waddington

PRESENTATION

Sat 14 Sept | 5 30pm | 60 minutes

Pay What You Feel / £5 suggested donation

Venue: Moseley Hive, 93 Alcester Road, Birmingham B13 8DD

Ben Waddington is the author of this year’s city guide book 111 Places in Birmingham That You Shouldn’t Miss, soon to appear in its second edition. Researching the book introduced Ben to many other Birmingham guide books, past and present: early twentieth-century trade fair souvenir programmes, post-war nocturnal wanderings, the alternative guides of the 1970s, sneering sideways appraisals of the 1980s and the slick, corporate entertainment gazetteers of the twenty-first century. Intrigued by the changing focus of meaningful destinations for city tourists and the varied backgrounds of researchers and writers, Ben devised The Birmingham Guide to Birmingham Guide Books as an homage to Birmingham's lost locations, forgotten trends and shifting identities that the city's tireless champions down the years have chosen to share.

Car parking is available behind Sultan Shawarma and Grill, 178 Alcester Road, Birmingham B13 8HJ