Pies and Prejudice: In Search of the North

I loved this book. It made me feel nostalgic and homesick for the place I actually live and work in, which is no mean feat!

Maconie is unashamedly prejudiced about his love for the North, but his humour and "warts and all" approach saves him from being bigoted or boorish.
I spent the middle third of my life as an economic migrant to The South, which has many attractions, but home is where the pies and gravy are 🤎🥧🤎 and coming home is a decision we've never regretted.

I was surprised by how bookish Stuart is, and his references to his literary favourites was endearing. He also has me hankering for a quiet pub corner where I can nurse a pint for an hour over a book, though in reality I usually find pubs too noisy and distracting an show more environment, so, again, a testament to his ability to evoke a mood.
A delightful surprise of a 5⭐ read. show less

This was fab! I really like Stuart Maconie - I even made hubby buy me a digital radio when he moved over to 6music, so I could continue to listen. He has a really good turn of phrase, is funny without being silly and it generally a lot more erudite than being a DJ might give him credit for. It's an observational book, based on the surmise that the north has to start somewhere and he goes in search of where that might be (the answer seems to be Crewe - as an unrepentant Southerner that seems a bit far north to me; Watford would be better). He travels the north, meeting people, seeing what makes then tick, discussing the different cities and regions of the north and how they loose out simply because they are in the north. In all it's a show more love song to region that has it's issues (and its chip on its shoulder) but has great beauty, warmth and a lot to admire. The cover blurb has this as being in the style of Alan Bennett, and I can see what they mean, although I find this more direct than Bennett is usually. I found it interesting, with lots of pop culture references that I got in an instant as well as funny, sweet and occasionally really very right. show less

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1553711.html

A couple of years back I read Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island and wasn't hugely impressed. This, on the other hand, is a wonderful book about the North of England, prefaced by the Ninth Doctor quote, "Lots of planets have a north", written with affection and humour, and occasional rage against Southern and/or London prejudices. As a non-English person myself, I don't have a particular stake other than cheering for the underdog; as someone who has a fascination for micro-cultures, I loved Maconie's exploration of the great cities of Northern England through pop music and football, even though those are both subjects which I am vaguely aware of rather than passionately interested in.

It is show more one of the few books where I actively wished I could hear the author reading it. Words on a page are all very well, but I imagine that Maconie had retained his Wigan accent, which would surely add colour to his delivery of lines like the way the Liver Birds are unlikely to fly away from Liverpool, because they are made of metal and nailed to the Liver Building, or the awful effects of his family's cooking tradition on his childhood morale. When his Golbourne Colliery relatives were sent tins of spaghetti in solidarity by Heinz workers during the miners' strike, these unfamiliar culinary objects "were regarded with suspicion. Rumour had it they'd become contaminated with flavour and tastiness and contained no pastry whatsoever."

Anyway, an excellent and enlightening book, for anyone with the slightest curiosity about Northern England. show less

Hilarious, observant, friendly; Maconie is the Bill Bryson of The North. This is a personal travelogue of a northener in exile, visiting cities from Liverpool and Manchester, to the Lakes and Hadrian's Wall, and gushing with praise over most. It's his honesty and familiarity that I enjoyed most, however - even a generation or two removed from Maconie's experiences, certain traditions (dinner is at midday, and supper is a cup of tea and biscuits in your dressing gown at night) and traits (talking to his parents on the telephone) were instantly recognisable to me. I enjoyed reading, quoting and recommending this book, and it's made me proud to be a northerner!

Stuart Maconie's writing is excellent, he makes me laugh and think and this is a marvellous gift. He tells me things about the north I didn't know and reminds me of places I have enjoyed visiting. He strings together wonderful stories of day trips and visits and does this very well.

Very funny and well-observed - particularly for a Northener like me.

I particularly liked his description of Durham City: "If Durham were in Kent or Sussex we would never hear the last of it. Every foreign visitor to these shores would salivate over its dreaming spires and punts and misericords and blue-stockinged girls on bicycles. ‘Dur-Ham’ would be said like ‘Boiled Ham’ by men in shorts from Boise, Idaho". I suspect he's right: it's a long way from London and it's not on the tourist routes to anywhere else except Edinburgh, so people don't think to break their journeys there in spite of the fact that it contains the finest Romanesque cathedral on the planet.

Not too sure about the bicycles, though: Durham is notoriously hilly show more and most people walk rather than cycle. show less

Like the previous reviewer, I too became homesick for my home town when reading this - how the h*ll can anyone be homesick for a rubbish town like mine? - he writes about everything that is good about the north and everything that is dire. Laugh-out-loud funny.