Customer Reviews: Read 44 more reviews...
 Love and Hypocrisy : A Lancastrian View of the North July 5, 2008
Lady of the Lake (Ilkley)
There were pages I skipped in this book out of sheer irritation at his socialist, BBC politics; and others I have marked up to remind me to visit or revisit some of the places in the North this southern girl loves.
His prejudice against the south is foolish and stereotyped; and his rants against middle class pursuits, whilst so obviously now being middle class himself, is blind hypocrisy. But, I would say it all adds to the charm of the book. If you want to get into the head of a northern working class lad, who became a middle class, southern media type complete with PC bias - then this is an illuminating piece of social history in its own right.
As a travel guide it is very patchy: it goes into great depth about West Lancashire - but he speeds around much of the north in a matter of pages, completely missing out some very obvious illustrative places like North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and York. However, when he goes into any depth he does make you want to go and explore the place for yourself - surely the objective of a travel book.
When he talks about your patch you notice the factual mistakes, and by the look of these reviews there are quite a number of them. All a little lax. However, the book has frequent 'laugh out loud' points, so if you treat it as a story a friend might tell in a pub, and not quite get his facts right, then that is really the tone of it. But where I am sure he will be factually correct, and was really rather interesting was in the musical background of Manchester and Liverpool - obviously a subject he does know.
All in all, worth a read on the train if you know the North, and can put up with the prejudice - and I think most can for the laugh; and the reminder that the north has a wonderful, rugged beauty that is quite different to the warm, charms of the south.
 Nostalgia for Madchester.......... June 16, 2008
K. Drury (Surrey)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I loved this irreverent but nostalgic style of writing, it reminded me of the Manchester I grew up and worked in, and its description of Wilmslow perfectly matched the lunch I had enjoyed on a visit 2 weeks earlier. A great present for anyone who has lived in the NW in particular, although maybe better for those of us who have also lived away. I hadn't even realised some of the traits I share are northern!
A great book, wherever you're from June 11, 2008
Magic Rat (uk)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Stuart Maconie has written a truly enjoyable book here. Always entertaining, always easy on the eye, Maconie's anecdotes are as insightful as they are wryly amusing. He does not attempt to lay on the comedy. Observations are always comparatively understated yet extremely perceptive being both culturally and chronologically bang on the nail. Maconie's wit is a dry one, yet it is also a friendly one. His descriptions of people are always affectionate and rarely malicious. As a social observer, Maconie is, I believe, as good as they get at the moment.
In this book, he attempts, within the confines of a relatively short book to revisit the places of his youth and other areas of "the North" of England, attempting to see the differences that exist between these areas and the South and indeed, from other areas in the North. He examines people, culture, architechture, and the general feeling of a town. His descriptions of Bury and Liverpool are particularly appealing. I love the story about black pudding consumption in Bury and its effect on stool samples ! The analysis of the Scouser as a collective personification is as pertinent as it is brutally honest. He stays well clear of self-satisfaction and smugness and is only judgemental when it is called for. It doesn't matter whether you're from the South or the North to be able to enjoy his book, although some experience of travelling in the North would be useful. It helps to be able to nod to oneself in recognition of much of what Maconie says.
I find Stuart Maconie's writing style eminently readable and appealing. The book flies by and, most importantly, in my opinion, it leaves one with a warm feeling.
Good and Bad June 9, 2008
A. R. Ellison (London)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Overall I have to say this was a reasonably enjoyable read, but I very much agree with other reviewers in as much as this was more a study of the (urban) north west than the north per se. This is fine, but do not pretend to be an expert on the whole of the north of England with a book largely about Greater Manchester and Merseyside. Even before he got to talking about the 'rich north', I had a fatalistic feeling that this was going to mean Cheshire and only Cheshire.
I was brought up in North Yorkshire and spent five years at University in East Yorkshire and this area was totally ignored. The north Maconie talks about is just as alien to me as for people from the south east. It is almost as if he wants to dispel prejudices while at the same time reinforcing them.
The other thing that grated enormously was his constant inverted snobbery and relentless musings on being 'working class' and everything and anything to do with it. I know this is his background, but it is tremendously alienating to the middle class reader and again annoying as not all of the north can be put in one basket like this.
There is more to the north than this and huge tracts of the north are not cities, but then again his knowledge of the south of England seems to be confined to London, so what can we expect?
I feel sorry that he has missed such a pretty place as North Yorkshire and such a nice town as York out. I am always proud to show friends from London round and enjoy their surprise when they say they did not think the north could be so picturesque.
Not surprising that they do not know this if they have read Maconie!
Pleasant little travelogue- if you're not from or in the North, don't bother June 3, 2008
Mr. Stuart Bruce (Bristol, UK)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
As a Northerner in exile this was a nostalgic little read for me. Working his way across 'the North' from the West coast over to the East and then up to Newcastle, Stuart Maconie tries to explain the character of each city and region, mixing geography a bit of football, politics, music and the like. It's a pleasant read, very Radio 2, and honest- it doesn't unthinkingly aggrandise the North (the way other reviewers have said it does), although in the epilogue Maconie lets himself down.
If you weren't born or raised or you don't live in the North of England then this book probably won't have a lot of meaning for you.
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