Review: Before the Fire - Sarah Butler

Set in the days leading up to the London and Manchester riots in 2011, Sarah Butler’s second novel explores the circumstances which lead young men and women to take part in violent actions, and the social background of many of the participants. In doing so, Butler challenges the prevailing post-riot discourse, which sought to condemn the rioters without mitigation and reassert the authority of the police and courts.

One of the big questions raised by the events of August 2011 involved the effect of crowds on individual behaviour. Pundits debated whether crowds can act with a shared ideology or goal, or whether people find they are simply swept along by what Charles MacKay described in 1852 study as 'the madness of crowds'. In some cases, this was used as a means to sweep legitimate grievances under the carpet: if we assume that people are incapable of acting rationally within a crowd situation, then we do not have to listen to what caused them to join the crowd in the first place. 

A notable aspect of the reaction to the disturbances in Manchester was the way in which the forces of law and order sought to define rioters solely by their connection to the events, taking no account of previous good character or mitigating circumstances, imposing a form of group responsibility rather than investigating individual cases on their merits. Thus, the Greater Manchester Police’s Twitter feed could boast of a mother of two ‘not involved in disorder, jailed for FIVE months… there are no excuses’, and the arrest of a 14 year old. People were suddenly discovering that a split second decision would have major consequences for their futures, as in the case of a man jailed for six months after stealing £3.50 worth of bottled water from a looted branch of Lidl. So what led them to take part?

Butler views the events through the figure of Stick (Keiron), a disaffected 17 year old from North Manchester. Stick has been doing casual work on a building site and lives with his mother, who shows signs of OCD. There is tragedy in his past: his young sister died in a house fire, which his mother has never got over, and his father left shortly afterwards. Stick also shows signs of psychological damage, and has been sent for anger management sessions by his school.

The future is looking bright, though; Stick is about to turn 18, and is planning to drive to Malaga with his friend Mac (Iain), where they hope to find work and a place to live. Mac is a larger than life character, brash and extroverted. Tragedy strikes when the boys go out to celebrate their impending departure in a city centre club. Mac leaves early, alone. On the bus, he gets into a confrontation with a stranger, and is stabbed. Compounding the grief he feels at the loss of his friend, Stick also finds that his escape plan has been thwarted; he feels trapped, with circumstances conspiring to prevent him from finding a way out.

The police swiftly find a suspect for the attack, Owen Lee (‘thirty-four. Father of two. History of violence. Recent divorce.’), but Stick is frustrated at the perceived slowness of the justice system. The trial date is scheduled for February, a six month delay - a sharp contrast to the speed with which rioters would be prosecuted. Stick’s mental state at this stage is comparable with that of the rioters in Tottenham: he has lost a friend, and no longer believes that the authorities have his best interests at heart. 

A toxic situation has developed, with multiple factors coming together: Stick feels trapped, powerless, and let down by authority. He is on the verge of adulthood, but finds himself unable to break away from his family home and create his own identity. Events seemingly conspire to keep him from fulfilling his ambitions. The riots which broke out in Manchester give him an opportunity to vent his frustration, whilst also creating an atmosphere in which he can finally exert some of his own agency, thanks to a temporary breakdown of social norms.

A resident of Manchester, Butler captures the feeling of the city well: it is easy to imagine Stick and Mac walking down Market Street 'laughing at the guys with their white-painted faces, pretending to be made out of stone', and loitering outside 'the tarted-up Corn Exchange'. The riot, too, is vividly described. A strange feature of modern demonstrations, protests and disturbances is our desire to capture them on film; at the G20 demonstration in London, for example, I remember the police filming protestors, protestors filming the police (and each other) and onlookers filming both groups. Protest is transformed into spectacle, an image to be disseminated and pontificated upon, rather than an action in itself. Butler notes this early on, describing spectators who 'stand and watch, their phones raised' as shops are looted. There is an urgency to the writing, as Stick finds himself walking into the heart of the riot: 'down Oldham Street to Piccadilly Gardens where shop alarms were wailing and the sound of smashing glass and shouting made his heart lift... Two boys were trying to lever the shutter away from a shop window. Further towards Market Street, a crowd surged around Primark's doors - people running inside and coming out with their arms full'.

Before the Fire is a sensitive and thoughtful account of the way that individuals can be propelled forwards by circumstance, rather than criminal impulse, and the long-term impact of short-term decisions. The subject of the riots in 2011 is a rich one for fiction, which can explore the intricacies of events in a way that the news media often fails to. Having been in central Manchester at the time of the events Butler describes, her account feels authentic, and her characters are well drawn. There are still a lot of questions to answer regarding the riots, and the motives of those involved, and Butler’s novel provides useful talking points for this discussion.