Pies and Prejudice [Audio Download]

Well, it's interesting to see the different responses to Stuart Maconie's paen to his region of the country. As someone who was born in South Africa to British parents (one from Preston and one from Middlesex), and was raised on the South Coast in East Sussex for 16 years; I feel that my roots are not that clear-cut. However, I was schooled in Kent and found the attitudes of many in that area of the world to be blinkered towards regional identity; despite my Mother being a dyed-in-the-wool Lancastrian from a working-class family, I can't claim to be anything other than middle-class, and at the earliest opportunity I shifted to live in Sheffield. I have now been in South Yorkshire for nearly 15 years, and I have to say that my personal experiences are that I would far rather be identified as a 'Northener' than a 'Southerner'. The old cliche that 'People up North are friendlier' is definitely true - in my experience - the pace of life is slower and more relaxed, and attitudes more open and less commerce oriented.

Anyway, that doesn't help prospective buyers of this book; Maconie's gentle humour and likeable persona shine through the book, and his musical knowledge is superb and of great interest to any music lover; whether they be from Watford or The Wirral. Yes he has an innate distaste for The South of England - but I for one don't blame him. I still have plenty of relatives and some friends who live south of Birmingham, and I often head south to visit them; however I'm always happy when I return home and see the bright steel lights of my city appearing over the horizon.

I happened to buy Stuart Maconie's excellent guide to the North - part Bill Brysonesque comic travel guide, part a genuinely heartfelt portrait of everything he loves about the area - just before going on an extensive driving tour for my work, incorporating many of the cities described. Not only was it an excellent companion on my travels, but I found out so much I didn't know, even though I have spent a great deal of time in the North over the years.

What is so engaging about Maconie's prose is that he is fully aware of the prejudices that exist about the North and about specific cities and nods to them jokily while leaving no one in any doubt that stereotypes and oversimplifications are just that.

His passion for music and history come out on almost every page but it is the humour that sells it - showing once again how a light touch can make some very serious social and political observations. I challenge anyone - Southerners included - not to enjoy this and learn from it.

Even when Maconie makes little mistakes (it's LOUIS Tussaud's in Blackpool and he seems to have merged two separate Viz characters into one) he's easily forgiven because he passes on such a wealth of fascinating and frequently laugh-out-loud material (a passing reference to how people mispronounce 'Clitheroe' being a case in point!)

I guarantee it'll change your perception of Wigan at the very least.

This is an urbane, witty and clever book that explores "Northerness" means ... or rather what "Northern Englishness" means.

I found it fascinating but wished Maconie had hopped north of the border to juxtapose the view of Scots to "oop norf" with those "dan sarf". ( I did at times say "being patronised by the Londoncentric media ... try living in Scotland, pal!" while reading it.)

(I was studying in Glasgow a few years ago and I overheard a middle-class southern girl ask a friend "do THEY like dogs". I resisted the urge to butt in and say "only when there is an "r" in the month." To this girl everything north of Oxford is a suburb of Mordor.)

Maconie's thesis is simple :- regionalism is rife in the worlds of media, politics and business; this leads to a small-minded southern mind-set and a reactionary northern response.

Maconie's most accurate and deservedly cruel lunge is at the media's obsession with London and the Home Counties. He is also commendably and unfashionably unafraid to bring in social class into his discussion.
(Notice how "Q.I." is always at pains not to patronise the developing world but Stephen Fry can label Scots as drunken yobs and Northerners as provincial.)

Some may be dissapointed by its middlebrow muddle:- is this a funny serious book or a serious funny book ? But that is to overlook the book's strength that you learn a lot without feeling you are being lectured at.

It does have its flaws though, primarily a feel of a sense of resentment towards the South rather than a real anger at the North's neglect by Northerners. In addition, while I sung "Ding dong, the Witch is Dead" when Thatcher resigned, I think Maconie's left-wing political views are as carefully though out as and, as predictable, as a reactionary, right-wing retired stockbroker's from Surrey.( Oops, that was a regional stereotype.) Yes, Maconie savages Militant ruled Liverpool but, all too often, north of the Watford gap self-interested, self serving rogues are voted in precisely because they wear a red rosette just as blue rosette wearing clowns like Boris Johnson are in the south. Yes, the Thatcherite era did lead to a savage and deliberate decimation of the British working class but the left showed an unforgivable lack of vision and leadership that made them vulnerable to old "milksnatcher".

But Maconie isn't a sentimentalist:- the North isn't porttrayed as perfect ... just as a neglected part of the UK with its own charm.

But overall, ecky thump! It' s reet champion, ower kid.I'm off to walk my whippet.

(Sorry, lads & lasses!)