Book Review: Pies and Prejudice: In Search of the North by Stuart Maconie

First, a confession. I've only been to the North a handful of times, and as guilty as most Londoners as focusing on the South-East of England when considering this country.

My blog, for example, has only ten posts featuring Manchester, while the huge majority mention London, in particular the London Underground.

I'm no doubt that I am one of the people that Stuart Maconie's superb book is intended for, although I don't buy into Northern stereotypes, don't drink cappunccinos and have no sun-dried tomatoes.

Maconie has gone on a journey through the North of England to educate us about this land. After a long rant about London, which he really seems to despise, he takes a train to Crewe, with its down-to-earth and dedicated football manager Dario Gradi and plethora of takeaways, including Full Bellies.

From there, he travells to Warrington, which inspires a couple of pages about the merits of rugby union versus rugby league (interesting even for someone like me who has no interest in sport).

Warrington was a popular strategic point for both sides in the civil war, and was bombed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army in 1973, murdereing two young children. Wonder how many of the Facebook IRA fans are aware of that?

Liverpool of course is mentioned, along with Mayor of London and television "personality" Boris Johnson's attack on the city, which Stuart Maconie compares to more unpleasent commentators in The Times writing on the Hillsborough football disaster.

Maconie explains the hostory of Liverpool, praises the river Mersey and Merseyside (which sound wonderful from his description, it's on my list of place I must visit) and debates Liverpool celebrities and Liverpool culture.

Manchester's bitter rivalry with Liverpool is also mentioned when he visits the "Shanghai of the north-west", which he regarded as "rich,sexy, glamorous, cool" as a child. Factory Records recieve a few pages, as does the gay village and Manchester's industrial history.

Wigan, where Stuart Maconie is from, is introduced with a discussion of George Orwell's depiction of the town in The Road to Wigan Pier, which Maconie compares favourably to Charles Jenning's "extended sarcastic diatribe" Up North (often bought together with Pies and Prejudice, according to Amazon). There is a pub called the Orwell in Wigan, as well as a toffee factory.

Leeds was loved for Leeds United, and hated for the City Varieties Leeds, the venue for the BBC's The Good Old Days, which Maconie was forced to watch.

Yorkshire, as featured in Channel Four's Red Riding, has its own humour, moors, brass bands, and Holmfirth, home of Last of the Summer Wine.

Blackpool, the North's premier seaside resort, has the Golden Mile pleasure beach, trams and Louis Tussaud's waxworks.

Also visited are Sheffield, with its white elephant the National Centre for Popular Music, Bradford, with the more succesful National Musuem of Photography, Film and Television, Wrexham and Chester (where the tedious beauty pagent/pop culture fix Hollyoaks is set).

Finishing with the peaceful Lake District and Cumbria, with the Sellafield nuclear power plant (renamed from Calder Hall), Stuart Maconie's book is educational, funny and thorough.

He makes good points about the effects of Thatcherism on the North and public transport, as well as the attitude of the South to the North, such as the BBC's need for a North of England correspondent and the way that stories only affecting London are reporting nationally.

However, I think his comments about London are pretty negative, it's not that bad here apart from the pollution, crime, expense and the famed problems meeting other people...

I highly recommend Pies and Prejudice, and it has renewed my desire to visit Liverpool and Manchester.

They have to be better than the West Midlands' Birmingham, a city full of menacing pubs, scary youths who seem to have gunlike objects in carrier bags, and drab chain shops (although the Peace Garden near Five Ways is wonderful).

Maybe someone will write a book about the West Midlands to prove me wrong!

I'm also going to try to write more blog posts about the North, although I do have some London ones planned out as well, and have added the South Yorkshire Star and the Blackpool Gazette to my Google Reader. I already have the Manchester Evening News and Yorkshire Evening Post.

Any other good Northern local newspapers online?