Top 10 books of the Midlands

In 2005 Birmingham MP John Hemming ran a competition to name the "greatest West Midlands writer" in history. The nominees, who included Coventry-born Philip Larkin, a poet more closely associated toon meer with the city of Hull, and ultimate winner Arnold Bennett, who actually wrote about a part of the world – the Potteries – which was classed as "the north" during his lifetime, illustrating why it is so difficult to talk about "Midlands literature".

It's a part of the country that is formless, and, taking in Shropshire, Warwickshire, the Black Country and Leicestershire, notoriously hard to name.

But having set two books [...] in my home town of Wolverhampton, I do think there is certain way of thinking and writing when you are neither from the north or the south, when you live in an English urban, multicultural setting which is not London.

And for what's it worth, here are 10 books that I think do a great job of capturing the mindset …

Sathnam Sanghera – LT author page toon minder