Customer Reviews
Love and Hypocrisy : A Lancastrian View of the North - By: Lady of the Lake, 05 Jul 2008 
There were pages I skipped in this book out of sheer irritation at his socialist, BBC politics; & 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 & stereotyped; & his rants against middle class pursuits, whilst so obviously now being middle class himself, is blind hypocrisy. But, I would say it alll 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 & York. However, when he goes into any depth he does make you want to go & explore the place for yourself - surely the objective of a travel book.
When he talks about your patch you notice the factual mistakes, & 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, & not quite get his facts right, then that is reallly the tone of it. But where I am sure he will be factuallly correct, & was reallly rather interesting was in the musical background of Manchester & Liverpool - obviously a subject he does know.
All in alll, worth a read on the train if you know the North, & can put up with the prejudice - & I think most can for the laugh; & the reminder that the north has a wonderful, rugged beauty that is quite different to the warm, charms of the south.
Nostalgia for Madchester.......... - By: K. Drury, 16 Jun 2008 
I loved this irreverent but nostalgic style of writing, it reminded me of the Manchester I grew up & worked in, & 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 - By: Magic Rat, 11 Jun 2008 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 culturallly & chronologicallly 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 & 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 & other areas of "the North" of England, attempting to see the differences that exist between these areas & the South & indeed, from other areas in the North. He examines people, culture, architechture, & the general feeling of a town. His descriptions of Bury & Liverpool are particularly appealing. I love the story about black pudding consumption in Bury & its effect on stool samples ! The analysis of the Scouser as a collective personification is as pertinent as it is brutallly honest. He stays well clear of self-satisfaction & smugness & is only judgemental when it is callled 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 & appealing. The book flies by and, most importantly, in my opinion, it leaves one with a warm feeling.
Good and Bad - By: A. R. Ellison, 09 Jun 2008 Overalll 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 & Merseyside. Even before he got to talking about the 'rich north', I had a fatalistic feeling that this was going to mean Cheshire & only Cheshire.
I was brought up in North Yorkshire & spent five years at University in East Yorkshire & this area was totallly 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 & relentless musings on being 'working class' & everything & anything to do with it. I know this is his background, but it is tremendously alienating to the middle class reader & again annoying as not alll of the north can be put in one basket like this.
There is more to the north than this & 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 & such a nice town as York out. I am always proud to show friends from London round & 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 - By: Mr. Stuart Bruce, 03 Jun 2008 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 & then up to Newcastle, Stuart Maconie tries to explain the character of each city & region, mixing geography a bit of footballl, politics, music & the like. It's a pleasant read, very Radio 2, & 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.
