Pies and Prejudice: In Search of the North

by Stuart Maconie

Book Overview

A Northerner in exile, Stuart Maconie goes on a journey in search of the North, attempting to discover where the clich s end and the truth begins. He travels from Wigan Pier to Blackpool Tower and Newcastle's Bigg Market to the Lake District to find his own Northern Soul, encountering along the way an exotic cast of chippy Scousers, pie-eating woollybacks, topless Geordies, mad-for-it Mancs, Yorkshire nationalists and brothers in southern exile...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0091910234
• ISBN13: 9780091910235
• Release Date: February 2008
• Publisher: Ebury Press
• Length: 354 Pages
• Weight: 0.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.0" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

Characterisations and nicknames

Stuart goes in search of where exactly the north of England begins...which towns and cities can call themselves 'northern' or are they really 'the midlands'? He travels from Wigan Pier to Blackpool Tower, the Bigg Market in Newcastle to the daffodil-laden Lake District in search of his own Northern Soul, encountering along the way an exotic cast of Scousers, Scallies, pie-eating Woolly-backs, topless Geordies, mad-for-it Mancs, Yorkshire nationalists and brothers in southern exile. Plenty of cliches to explore and I found it a witty and interesting book which was more than just a search for 't'north' ...after all I don't really care exactly where it is...I just know I live there!! The social history of some of our much loved northern towns and cities was indeed warmly told from the bands of Liverpool and Manchester to the shipyards on Wearside and plenty in between. Maconie adds his own style of wry humour to his tour of the north and yes, he does have a bias towards the north, but doesn't really slag off the south...just made me chuckle at the differences. After all just because Sunderland folks think it's a heatwave at the same temperature southerners are "...togged up in car coats and parkas..." is more amusing observation than a flattering description. But then I'm from Yorkshire so prone to exaggeration! ;-)