“So, this is your first time in the UK and you’ve come to Birmingham? Poor you,” went the conversation on the train. Earwigging from down the carriage, I winced, and I have no connection to the vast conurbation that is often proudly referred to by inhabitants as England’s “second city”. But what I’d heard was not an atypical reaction from British people when considering “Brum”, a city often harshly regarded as uneasy on the eye.
The West Midlands (as you might guess, neighbour to the East Midlands I visited a couple of weeks ago) is however, a vast and diverse region, home to almost three million people and a wider metropolitan population of more than four million. The response from the visitor, in the UK from Sweden, was rather more positive than the resident Englishman might have expected. She’d had a great few days, and despite the (predictably) inconsistent early summer weather was already thinking of a return to these shores.
An academic at Lund University, (a Conversation member institution), the visitor had been attending the annual conference of the British International Studies Association (BISA). It’s a big gathering, which draws researchers from across the world, and that was what had lured me to Birmingham as well. I’d only managed a day, in and out, but my experience was similarly upbeat.
