Britain invented the factory – Manchester was the world’s first factory-city. Where are they now, and the world of work that went with them? The answer, mainly, is China. An issue devoted to how and where we made and make things, from strawberries in the fields of Herefordshire to the car plants of Korea.

Featuring Isabel Hilton in the new factories of China, Joe Sacco on Chechen rebels living in an abandoned dairy factory, Andrew Martin in the chocolate factories of York, Neil Steinberg on the last lamps in Chicago, Des Barry on Merthyr Tydfil- the old Hoover factory where his father worked, Liz Jobey on turning a factory into a home and Luc Sante on the boredom of factory work.

Plus new fiction by James Lasdun and Tessa Hadley.

With a picture essay on a Rust Belt factory of the American midwest by Alec Soth.