True North: In Praise of England's Better Half - Martin Wainwright

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Résumé :
Abysmal weather, slag heaps, funny accents, the bleak uplands of a landscape carved out of millstone grit and townscape of abandoned mills and shipyards, the detritus of an industrial revolution past its sell-by date. That, anyway, is the myth, the foundation for the dismissive gibe that nothing north of Watford is worth a bag of chips. This and other myths are swiftly dispatched in True North--an incisive and wittily observant assessment of a socially and culturally flourishing region in the UK that can boast an unrivalled setting of wild coastline, lakes, and green dales, as well as inhabitants who are indomitably inventive, proud of their past, and keen to forge a brilliant new future.

He offers an affectionate trip through the region that is more thematic than geographical ...Wainwright's amiable and illuminating anecdotes are supported by a superb selection of photographs from the only national newspaper that began life outside the capital ... any book that references Saint Hilda and Les Dawson in the same chapter is clearly worth a look Daily Mail True North is his love letter to 'England's Better Half', a gently paced modern history taking in culture, nature and cottage industries. He doesn't ignore stereotypes so much as moderate them with wit and unlikely facts ... Northerners will revel in all the local colour, while southerners will continue to wonder what all the fuss is about Metro Calling on a mix of memoir and history, the author looks at the old North, and the new revitalised North of today. In exploring how and why the region has changed, he writes compellingly in praise of people and places. It's a fascinating read -- Book Of The Month Choice Magazine Exhilarating Saga