The Girl in the Iron Lung is the result of a residency Pat Winslow undertook as part of the Bandages & Biscuits North Manchester Hospitals Heritage Project.
‘Then one by one,
the coffee bars opened.
There was alfresco drinking, weather permitting,
and jalfrezi, dupiaza, balti, tandoori
and gold in the shops that glowed like butter
and films from Europe, films from Iran
and the Year of the Dragon,
the Snake, the Horse, and someone put sculptures
in the squares and the Arndale stayed put,
miraculously, it stood like a plaquey tooth
over gleaming tramlines and plate glass walls,
and the men kept drilling and excavating like ants
as the city grew up
and learnt to love itself again.’
