CyranoJ
Ustuzou
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2015
- Posts
- 2,673
Authenticity in a story set in the West Midlands
Okay, so I'm wondering if I could pick the Literoticates' hive-brain for a moment.
I'm putting the finishing touches on a story set in Birmingham (UK) in 1961. It involves a sting operation being run by a small, fledgling vice squad, and I just want to double-check a few things with people who might be more knowledgeable about the UK in general and the West Midlands in particular than I am. My questions are these:
1. There's a small vice squad operating in Birmingham, as this is just the early period of police developing specialised units to deal with drugs and prostitution. Is this squad mostly likely run by a Detective Inspector or a Detective Chief Inspector? Does it particularly matter? They've also seconded a policewoman from the rank and file to work undercover for them: is she likelier to be a Constable or a Detective Constable, or again, does it particularly matter?
2. I'm trying to salt people's speech with indicators of the Brummie accent without overdoing things. So for example: people greeting one another with alright, saying farewell with ta-ra, going "down the outside" as visiting the local off-license and so on.
Now, it turns out that finding recorded examples of Brummie slang -- and especially period-appropriate examples -- is kind of complicated, since so much content seem focused on making fun of it. Are there any Brummies here, or those familiar with the dialect, who might know whether there are certain red flags, phrases that foreigners imagine Brummies using which they don't actually use that much, or wouldn't have used in the early Sixties?
3. This question is more of a longshot as it requires familiarity with the specific workings of the sex trade in Sixties Birmingham, but it's worth a shot. The story takes place on Varna Road, in the process of earning its reputation as the so-called "wickedest road in Britain." Prostitution by some accounts worked here rather like a harsher version of the red-light districts in Amsterdam, with sex workers advertising themselves to passersby in the front windows of flats. I use this model and I have the area largely deserted in daytime but relatively lively of an evening.
To those familiar with the area, or more likely with accounts of it, at that time: does any of that sound glaringly inaccurate?
Thanks in advance for any help folks are able to give.
Okay, so I'm wondering if I could pick the Literoticates' hive-brain for a moment.
I'm putting the finishing touches on a story set in Birmingham (UK) in 1961. It involves a sting operation being run by a small, fledgling vice squad, and I just want to double-check a few things with people who might be more knowledgeable about the UK in general and the West Midlands in particular than I am. My questions are these:
1. There's a small vice squad operating in Birmingham, as this is just the early period of police developing specialised units to deal with drugs and prostitution. Is this squad mostly likely run by a Detective Inspector or a Detective Chief Inspector? Does it particularly matter? They've also seconded a policewoman from the rank and file to work undercover for them: is she likelier to be a Constable or a Detective Constable, or again, does it particularly matter?
2. I'm trying to salt people's speech with indicators of the Brummie accent without overdoing things. So for example: people greeting one another with alright, saying farewell with ta-ra, going "down the outside" as visiting the local off-license and so on.
Now, it turns out that finding recorded examples of Brummie slang -- and especially period-appropriate examples -- is kind of complicated, since so much content seem focused on making fun of it. Are there any Brummies here, or those familiar with the dialect, who might know whether there are certain red flags, phrases that foreigners imagine Brummies using which they don't actually use that much, or wouldn't have used in the early Sixties?
3. This question is more of a longshot as it requires familiarity with the specific workings of the sex trade in Sixties Birmingham, but it's worth a shot. The story takes place on Varna Road, in the process of earning its reputation as the so-called "wickedest road in Britain." Prostitution by some accounts worked here rather like a harsher version of the red-light districts in Amsterdam, with sex workers advertising themselves to passersby in the front windows of flats. I use this model and I have the area largely deserted in daytime but relatively lively of an evening.
To those familiar with the area, or more likely with accounts of it, at that time: does any of that sound glaringly inaccurate?
Thanks in advance for any help folks are able to give.
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