BRIXHAM’S MYTH & CHIPS

Brixham is given a headline role in the climate & nature crisis – performed to verse & music at Summer Sounds 23, Totnes

 

 

The locally printed, fully illustrated hardback First Edition of ‘Brixham Chimes’ gives Brixham its first dedicated novella in verse – but it comes with a warning from the future. With a story spanning the 18th – 21st centuries, the book explores the landmarks and community of the town. But, unlike most of the poetry previously written about the town, Brixham Chimes is no candy confection of seaside twee. It is hard hitting and brutal in its honesty. The verse reels in an unflinching expose of Industrial Fishing, seen through the lens of its corrosive effects on both coastal community and environment.

A ‘Lament to the destructive power of the Beam Trawler’. The author, Jim Funnell, says of the book; “I first became fascinated by the world of industrial fishing whilst making the 10 x 60’ observational documentary series Fish Town (all about Brixham) for Sky Atlantic. I was struck by the easy romanticism attached to industrial fishing and the way it distracted from industrial fishing’s dubious claims of sustainability.”

Myth & Chips

Jim continues: “The image of Brixham as a sustainable ‘folksy’ fishing town is a myth. It is dominated by Beam Trawlers and Scallop Dredgers that have a catastrophic effect on climate & nature.
I made the TV series Fish Town 13 years ago and I am struck by how little things have changed. Despite bans elsewhere, Brixham Beam Trawlers and Scallop Dredgers still drag their nets and chains across the seabed, destroying the ecologies the rest of the industry needs to survive. Despite the mounting evidence of tipping points and ecosystem collapse, industrial fishing in Brixham is still defiantly ‘business as usual’. Worse- industrial fishing is more dominant than ever, with no signs of changing its destructive ways. Brixham used to be a thriving community of small boat, family-run inshore fishers who fish with a much lower impact. Now they’re being forced out at the rate of knots by subsidy hungry, polluting and destructive industrial fishing.”

Summer Sounds 23 performance and beyond: Jim is performing the whole novella to live music at the SummerSounds23 festival on Tuesday 22nd August, 19:30 at St Mary’s Church, Totnes. In addition, Jim is performing sunset readings of Brixham Chimes on Brixham Breakwater during the summer months prior to a tour of UK fishing towns. Jim continues: “It’s an epic and universal poem – a global story of life & loss with Brixham at its heart. We’ll be touring it in September onwards round Newlyn, Plymouth, Lowestoft and, we sincerely hope, in Brixham.”

Familiar sights
Throughout the story of Brixham Chimes runs the instantly recognisable sounds and sights of Brixham – including Berry Head, the Napoleonic Hill Fort, Brixham Fish Market, the churches of St Mary’s and All Saints, the famous Brixham harbour and fish quay. Even the now vanished Maritime Inn all become key locations in the story.

Now Brixham has been given its own literary work – what Jim terms its very own ‘Under Milk Wood’ – industrial fishing interests might find the book unwelcome. But many across Brixham and region – including the remaining small inshore fishers – will recognise the picture portrayed in the novella in verse. And millions of others, who have their eyes wide open to the climate & nature crisis, will see that the story- although local by name- is sadly universal, and an encapsulation of the issues we are facing as we destroy the ecosystems we are reliant on. Above all the story is a cry for coastal community and nature to reconnect once more.

To book tickets for ‘Brixham Chimes – live performance to music’ at Summer Sounds 23, click HERE

You can also buy the beautiful, fully illustrated hardback First Edition of Brixham Chimes direct from the author through www.jimfunnell.net