Pig Iron

Pig Iron

Benjamin Myers

Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

Pig Iron is the story of John-John, a young man wrestling with the legacy of brutality left by his bare-knuckle boxer father, King of the Gypsies, Mac Wisdom. His new job as an ice cream man should offer freedom, but instead pulls John-John into the dark recesses of a north-east town where his family name is mud. As he attempts to trade prejudice, parole officers and local gangs for his ‘green cathedral’ - the rural landscape in which he seeks solace - Mac’s rise and bloody downfall threatens to engulf John-John’s present. A far cry from the recent media stereotyping of travellers, Pig Iron is a sensitive portrayal of Britain’s most marginalised and misunderstood ethnic group. More than anything, it is about the redemptive power of nature and the landscape of post-industrial northern England. Pig Iron is the story of a traveller who hasn’t travelled; a young man fighting for his surname and his very survival.


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