Former Express & Star football writer publishes novel about The Black Country

Titled 'Heathens' it tells the stories of the lives of people working in the warehouses and factories of the fictional Black Country town of Sedgemere Heath.

Set against a backdrop of the pubs and social clubs of Stourbridge, where author Max Hall grew up, the book is a collection of short stories tied together by the escapades of a group of unlikely heroes.

Max was born in Wordsley and raised in the pubs and clubs managed by his parents in and around Stourbridge.

During his print career, Max supplied football copy for the Express & Star before going on to titles in Wales and Surrey and working as a sub-editor on The Independent.

Since 2019, he has lived in Genoa, northern Italy and dreamed of becoming a full-time writer.

He said: "My book is a series of short stories, with each chapter telling the story of a different character, all in and around the fictional Black Country town of Sedgemere Heath, which is heavily based on Stourbridge and its hinterland where I grew up.

"I had the idea to write Heathens while I was out jogging in Reggio Calabria, southern Italy during a Christmas visit to my in-laws in 2019, a couple of months before Covid-19 arrived in Europe.

"I basically used the project as an excuse to only work four days per week for the next six months, as ideas rapidly tumbled out of my mind.

"I put every Friday aside, spent a few hours each time writing and treated myself to longer-than-usual weekends.

"I’m now struggling for excuses to explain why I’ve never gone back to a five-day week."

Heathens is being serialised on Wattpad.com website and the first chapter, Ol' Panhandle, can be found by searching for "Heathens" and "#BlackCountry".