From Banks's brewery's yeasty stink to groaty pudding to spicy curry Sebastian Groes and R. M.
Francis have assembled a new literary history of the smells and (childhood) memories that
belong to the Black Country. This often overlooked region of the United Kingdom at the
frontlines of post-industrial upheaval is a veritable treasure trove for studying the
relationship between olfaction and place-specific memory. Smell Memory and Literature in the
Black Country is an interdisciplinary exploration of the relationship between smell and memory
in which the contributions consider both personal and communal memory. Drawing on psychology
neuroscience memory studies literary studies and philosophy the critical essays reconsider
psychogeography through cutting-edge sensory and philosophical engagements with physical space
smell language and human behaviour. The creative contributions from writers including Liz
Berry Narinder Dhami Anthony Cartwright and Kerry Hadley-Pryce meditate on the senses place
and identity. Not only does this book illustrate the rich cultural heritage of the Black
Country it will also appeal to those interested in place writing. The book is prefaced by Will
Self.
