Salamander lands theatre director's 'beautifully observed' pandemic memoir 

Salamander Street has bagged The Club on the Edge of Town: A Pandemic Memoir by theatre director Alan Lane.

The publisher obtained world English-language rights from the author.

Lane is the artistic director of Slung Low theatre company, which is based in the oldest working men’s club in Leeds. During the first pandemic in 2020, the company pivoted to running a food bank. The memoir charts the journey the company undertook to set up a temporary non-means-tested food bank, recruit volunteers and deliver roughly 15,000 food parcels to families in the community. It also examines the challenges and contradictions faced by arts funders and organisations to be relevant and useful in the communities in which they are located.

Lane said: "There are children in Holbeck without crayons. Living in a city with an opera company. An opera company paid for with money from all of us. Until everyone has crayons, no one gets opera. That’s what I believe."

"Drawing upon his own personal experience of the barriers facing many children to participate in arts and cultural activity, and his approach to making live theatre in spaces outside traditional venues, Lane offers a unique social commentary on the ability of the arts to be truly accessible," the synopsis explains. "Having chosen to move Slung Low into an area of Leeds held back by poverty, and into a building with a long history run by its longstanding members, the memoir provides a witty and at times heartbreaking account of trying to do good in a divided world."

Hilary Benn, MP for Leeds Central, added: "I urge you to read this book; you will not be disappointed. On the contrary, you will be uplifted, amused, frustrated, informed, perplexed and then uplifted again. The characters are beautifully observed and there is a generosity to the portraits painted. 

"There is also raw honesty about a community where poverty still stalks too many homes and families, and from time to time we are rightly invited to rage against the unfairness of it all and the cruelty of the benefits system. If you are looking for inspiration as how to navigate a way through life and its vicissitudes, then this is a very good place to start."

The Club on the Edge of Town: A Pandemic Memoir by Alan Lane will be available in print and digital forms from 7th April 2022, featuring a foreword by Pen Pinter Prize-winning author Lemn Sissay.