An exclusive reading from Malcolm Pryce's latest book, 'A Streetcar Named Aberystwyth

Watch An exclusive reading from Malcolm Pryce's latest book, 'A Streetcar Named Aberystwyth - Tindle News on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00 Sooner or later every child asks, "Mummy, where do your games teachers come from?"

00:13 And the mothers of Aberystwyth answer with a tale about them appearing spontaneously

00:17 under stones on late summer evenings, or they say they were brought by fairy messengers

00:23 and left on the doorsteps of childless women.

00:26 But the truth was nobody knew.

00:29 One summer I discovered the truth, but the knowledge came at a high price.

00:33 That was the same summer the Penguin Man came to town, and none of us will forget that.

00:39 The heat started to build early in May when after a long winter hibernation the doe-grey

00:44 cheeks of the old hag of the sky cracked and blessed us with a toothless smile.

00:50 It was a smile of an old dowager who had been surprised by the early arrival of spring and

00:55 roused before getting a chance to put her dentures in.

00:59 It was the sounds I remember most, the rhythmic clop of donkey hoof on hot asphalt, the ever-present

01:05 banshee wail of the prowl-car siren, and the cry over the rooftops of the muezzin calling

01:11 the faithful to bingo.

01:14 Or more faintly in whispers, the loose trollops in their stove-pipe hats billying and cooing

01:19 from doorways, trading that same merchandise that poor girls have always traded in the

01:24 great ports of the world.

01:26 Fancy a bit of tea, cosy sir, warm your spout until your ship comes in.

01:32 Welcome to Aberystwyth, town of broken hearts and broken cornets.

01:38 [coyote howling]