Northerners: The bestselling history of the North of England

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Also former editor of Scotland on Sunday, which he launched as deputy editor and which won many awards. HarperNorth have bought World English rights to the next two books by Brian Groom, author of the bestselling Northerners: A History, from the Ice Age to the Present Day. I fear that in some sense the book wants to divide, that the author wants to leave us with uncertainty and open wounds rather than conclude with healing or at least aim towards it. Both books will draw on the Stretford-born author’s more than four decades as a journalist specialising largely in the archipelago’s regions and nations.

As new forces threaten the fabric of the UK again, this landmark book could scarcely be more timely. The first book, Mancunians, due to be published in May 2024, will tell the story of the people who built the “shock city” of the Industrial Revolution and the impact they have had on the world. Going from the Ice Age to the present day in about 400 pages means you cannot cover anything in depth.There is a real difficulty in writing a separate history of the north, because the north is not separate from England. It also embraces the scenery of the north, and Groom's accounts of Liverpool, the Pennines, Northumbria and Manchester are all very evocative. Definitely recommend reading it rather than listening to the audiobook version because personally, I found it felt like listening to a never ending dull lecture which got a bit repetitive to be honest. When not enjoying the great outdoors with family and friends, she enjoys sitting down to watch a movie or curling up in a quiet corner with a good book. From the North-South divide to why the bloody hell people just used to kill each other all the time.

The way the book is structured threw me off at times too because it jumps around in time an awful lot due to tangents but, to be honest, that is a minor qualm. Brian Groom is a journalist and one of the foremost experts on British regional and national affairs. Groom sets out to create a proper history of the north of England and the people that identify as northerners.A pop-history survey of Northern English identity, it was very interesting to someone who has lived in the North. We may never know quite what makes Northerns tick, but we have no doubt about where they come from and what they've achived. This authoritative new history of place and people lays out the dramatic events that created the north - waves of migration, invasions and battles, and transformative changes wrought on European culture and the global economy.

The chapters covering the Middle Ages were especially draining, seeming to be one long list of battles with little to no supporting framework. For all ebook purchases, you will be prompted to create an account or login with your existing HarperCollins username and password. I especially found the chapters on slavery/ cotton manufacturing and the women's movement really interesting as I had not been aware that the North part of England had played such an influential part, first in terms of commerce and then later in abolishing slavery both here and in America. Enjoyed the first half of the book a lot, probably as I knew less about the early history of the North. And then I guess it became something of an identifier representing a sense of community for the miners?The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. He is a journalist so knows how to tell a story, and the stories he tells here are never less than gripping. Also, more on some of the similarities with the rest of the UK, for example, I'm sure there were similarities in the development of cities like Bristol and Glasgow with Northern cities in the 19th century. It read like the notes-gathering section of a lengthy dissertation, with a lot of information that could have been pruned, a considerable amount of repetition, and very little analysis or discussion of what life was really like on the ground. Northerners is rigorous, digressive, discursive, always entertaining and enlightening, as full of good things as the North itself.

It explores the factors that have created the north’s modern identities and how these fit into the story of England, the UK and the world. On that note, I think the book could have done with a map of the North at the beginning for those that are less familiar with Northern geography). With the North York Moors National Park and Yorkshire coast on her doorstep, she was inspired to improve her photographic skills and recently qualified with a diploma in photography. I kept trying to identify what it was that was lacking in the book that made it more of a chore to read than a pleasure, before deciding that what the book was lacking was a bit of heart.You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. A further, minor annoyance is the 'woke' language: things like the capitalisation of black, but not white, when referring to races, and BCE and CE over BC and AD. A visitor to some of the more affluent areas of the North East might find there is actually more of an affinity with kindred villages and towns in the south than there is within the varied communities of the north of England. However, I would have liked to have seen a chapter on Queer figures from the North to give this book its full potential.