Flower Factory: A Fairy Tale
Freedom of Movement wasn’t always an alien concept to the British. Flower Factory tells of an English seasonal worker going to live and work in the Netherlands at the turn of the millennium. These psyched-out remembrances are set in the Bollenstreek of South Holland, an area that produces flower bulbs by the billion. Casual workers from all over Europe created their own ecosystem of squats, parties and alternative living practices around the working seasons, raving hard and living for the weekly pay packet. In the year 2000 it seemed nothing would change in this free-and-easy land, but the narrator witnessed the last beating of the 24 Hour Party drum.
Featuring original line illustrations by the author, this surreally comic and immersive novel is a dreamlike snapshot of life in Europe just two decades ago: the book shines a lurid light on a world that’s difficult to recognise today.
Richard Foster
Richard Foster is a writer and artist living in the Netherlands. Richard is best known as a writer for The Quietus and Louder than War, and for his work at the famous avant-garde cultural centre, WORM, in Rotterdam, where he is communications manager and the booker for music, talks and radio. His work on Dutch post-punk has been published over the last decade by a number of academic titles and he has appeared as a guest on national radio stations in Germany, Lithuania, Estonia and on BBC Radio 3. He runs The Museum of Photocopies in his spare time.