History at Christmas …… no 1 Northerners .... A History

So, on a day when I am Billy no mates with the family off in all directions, it is a perfect day to resume reading "Northerners A History", by Brian Groom.

It was one of six history books I got for Christmas and the one I started yesterday on Boxing Day.

Still to come will be Geoffrey Ashworth’s second edition of "The Lost Rivers of Manchester", two volumes of the Manchester Genealogist and the excellent looking “Pax War and Peace In Rome’s Golden Age”.

Pax is the work of Tom Holland and covers the period of the Roman Empire I am most at home with which begins in 69 AD and runs through to the death of Hadrian. 

And along with these is the "Definitive Desert Island Discs" with the transcripts from 80 shows stretching back from 1942 well into the 21st century.  

It is what I call a dipping into book and I shall ration myself to two a day although I have yet to work out whether I shall start at the beginning during the war, work back from the last with Kate Moss in 2022, or just dip.  

The jury is out.

But during a quiet moment yesterday I settled on“Northerners” which is as it says  “A History From the Ice Age to the Present Day”.

Now, I am an adopted Northerner, ….. born in Lambeth with my early years in Peckham and then Eltham and Woolwich, I followed a girl North in 1969, settling in Manchester.  

As a way of choosing a degree course it was a tad daft, especially as she left for London three months later and I lost the return ticket.

And after 54 years I think I have become an adopted Mancunian and one who is most happy here  in Chorlton, much to the amusement of my family and friends, who never cease to mutter about rain, tripe and flat caps.

But while I always will  be that lad from southeast London, the North is home, more so because our kids were all born here, Dad was from Gateshead and mother from Derby which as Mr. Groom argues in his book could be included in the North.

And that brings me back to  "Northerners", which is as scholarly as it is easy to read.

I like footnotes and there are footnotes and while it is a book about the past, the present is always there to put a context and a comparison with the south.

So that is it. 

Not sure what will slip into the number 2 slot, but Pax and Desert Island will definitely be saved for when the telly really goes bad, and the weather makes sitting in front of the fire the best option.