Tony Birch: Common People

A recovering alcoholic prepares for important visitors. Underpaid slaughterhouse workers make a pittance packing meat through the night. And an act of kindness cuts through an ageing child-abuse survivor’s defences.

The Common People who feature in Tony Birch’s eponymous new short-story collection are precisely the kind of marginalised, ignored or forgotten characters that have preoccupied the Miles Franklin Award-shortlisted author, academic and poet throughout his impressive career to date.

Tony Birch will appear in conversation with Chris Flynn at the Wheeler Centre in November to discuss the short-story form, writing life into fiction and the characters and questions that matter to him.