In "The Alexandra Sequence" John Redmond views contemporary urban life through the suggestive prism of the "mummers play", a seasonal British folk-theatre staged in the streets and door-to-door. The book's title takes its name from an area of Liverpo...

We had been instructed to start promptly at six, since the hall was needed again at eight. We pushed through the curtained doorway, like instrumentalists without instruments, and onto the stepped stage. The audience was still coming in. Uncertain of...