- Paperback: 300 pages
- Publisher: Picador; New Ed edition (8 Mar 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0330369970
- ISBN-13: 978-0330369978
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 13 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 450,528 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Tim Binding's most lyrical and experimental work to date, the story of an English town.
Book Description
Tim Binding lived in Ilkley, Yorkshire until he was seven, and the place shaped his imagination and has haunted him ever since, especially the death by drowning of Michael Airey, his childhood friend. On Ilkley Moor is an imaginative history of a town: a series of explorations, partly factual, partly intuitive and partly personal. It is the tale of Victorian optimism - of faith in hydropathy, in manufacturing, in the railways. It is an examination of Ilkley's place on the faultline between the two great forces which have informed English life and culture: its rural heritage and the industrial revolution. It is a book about the north, about industry, commerce and medicine and, above it all, it is one small story of England, of going back, of the fifties and the lost dreams of that era - not a travel book, but a return home to the place that made the writer what he is. 'An evocative, resonant and sometimes disturbing book' Philip Hoare, Independent 'Fascinating... a journey into the heart of Yorkshire gone by, this is a powerful book, constantly informed by the hulking moor above the town' Conde Nast Traveller
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book is arguably the best yet by the established author Tim Binding. Although it is marketed as a biography of Ilkley it goes, however, far deeper than that. It is much more than a mere travel or history book. It is very personal along with being factual, and also partly autobiographical. Binding deliberately writes in the third person when referring to himself, conciously wishing to detatch himself from this return to his childhood, his growing up period. On Ilkley Moor is extrememly moving, in particualar as poem at the end of the book dedicated to his mother, characterised by a repeating line, 'Oh but she loved me'. References to the tragic drowning of his childhood friend in the swollen river Wharfe amongst other happenings leave lasting impressions on the reader. Binding writes with verve and imagination, its haunting, tragic themes and tones left a great effect on me. If i had my way everyone would try reading it. A truly great book.
Format:Paperback
This book is the biggest load of self-indulgent twaddle that I have had the misfortune to come across in many years. I read the first chapters hoping they were taking me somewhere, but no such luck. It has no structure, and what little content there is, is wrapped up in a literary 'style' that would get nothing but rejection slips if it had been anyone's first book. If you plan to buy this for someone interested in the town of Ilkley don't bother. Ilkley 'shaped' him? He left at age 7 for heavens sake! If you want a less challenging read pick up some Gore Vidal, or maybe go back to Ulysses. This is a book that once put down is very hard to pick up again.
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