The Alpha Flame: Story Map
A hand-drawn guide to the Midlands setting of The Alpha Flame: Discovery, sketched to show how the key places relate in 1983. Schematic, not to scale.
Cock Hill Lane
A steep lane rising from Rubery, close to daily life. Streets and side roads here frame several quiet, telling moments.
The Doweries & Deelands Road
Neighbouring estates near Cock Hill Lane that capture the feel of working-class Birmingham in the early eighties.
Rubery Hill Hospital
A former psychiatric hospital overlooking the area. Derelict by the period of the book, it lends an eerie weight to the landscape.
Frankley & Reservoir
Beth’s childhood backdrop. The water and open ground carry memories, choices, and the starkness of survival.
Lickey Hills
Green relief between Rubery and Barnt Green. A pocket of space where characters pause, breathe, and gain perspective.
Barnt Green & The Inn
A village south of Rubery that feels a world apart. The Barnt Green Inn becomes a place for gathering and reflection.
Redditch: Limelight & Washford Mill
Nightlife and edge. The nightclub and riverside pub offer contrast to the quieter streets nearer home.
Belbroughton: The Bell
A country pub to the west. Distance and quiet lanes give scenes here a different texture.
Austin Longbridge
The car plant that symbolised Birmingham’s industrial heartbeat. A landmark as much as an employer.
Birmingham
The city on the horizon. Bigger, busier, sometimes darker, always shaping the choices nearby.
Artistic interpretation of 1983 locations; relationships over precise distances.