Pies and Prejudice: In search of the North - Softcover

Maconie, Stuart

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0091910226 ISBN 13: 9780091910228

Publisher: Ebury Press, 2007

Synopsis

'My name is Stuart Maconie, and I am from the North Of England. Some time ago, I was standing in my kitchen, rustling up a Sunday brunch for some very hungover, very Northern mates who were "down" for the weekend. One of them was helping me out and, recipe book in hand, asked "where are the sun-dried tomatoes?" "They're behind the cappuccino maker," I replied. Silence fell. We slowly met each other's gaze. We did not say anything. We did not need to. Each read the other's unspoken thought: we had become those kinds of people, the kind of people who had sun-dried tomatoes and cappuccino makers, the kind of people who did Sunday brunch. In other words: southerners.'

A northerner in exile, stateless and confused, hearing rumours of Harvey Nichols in Leeds and Maseratis in Wilmslow, Stuart goes in search of The North. Delving into his own past, it is a riotously funny journey in search of where the clichés end and the truth begins. He travels from Wigan Pier to Blackpool Tower, the Bigg Market in Newcastle to the daffodil-laden Lake District in search of his own Northern Soul, encountering along the way an exotic cast of Scousers, Scallies, pie-eating Woolly-backs, topless Geordies, mad-for-it Mancs, Yorkshire nationalists and brothers in southern exile.

About this title

Review:

"Stuart Maconie is the best thing to come out of Wigan since the A58 to Bolton" (Peter Kay)

"Witty and wise, with more good lines than the Angel of the North" (Hunter Davies)

"Maconie makes a jovial, self-deprecating narrator. Sharp and funny" (Guardian)

"Effortlessly articulate" (The Times)

"A lyrical, passionate, humorous and argumentative tour du force...Imagine Nick Danzinger meets Nik Cohen meets Ricky Tomlinson and you've got the perfect blend of humorously incisive northern-travel writing. An early contender for best travel book of the year." (Big Issue North)

Book Description:

A hilarious journey in search of the real North, northerners and northernness, from the bestselling author of Cider With Roadies

About this edition

• Publisher: Ebury Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0091910226
• ISBN 13: 9780091910228
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352