Northerners: The bestselling history of the North of England

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Northerners was 10 years in the writing, and even longer in the evolution. Groom, former head of the regional reporting team of the Financial Times, travelled around the North in the fifties with his father, the sales manager of a textile firm. He didn’t miss much. The north’s cultural impact — from The Beatles to Coronation Street to the Haçienda — is firmly established within our national identity. But the north’s politics, and its relationship with the south of England, remains bitterly contested. In the years since the poll, the financial crash, austerity, and the vote to leave the EU have re-opened divides long thought to have disappeared. In the white heat of the debate about “left-behind” towns, the blame for Brexit was pointed squarely at the north. This was, in many ways, an unfair character assassination. You were as likely to have voted Leave if you were from Dagenham, Southampton or Bexley as Sunderland, Bury or Hartlepool. Much as many would love to wish the North-South divide away, this is no time to give up,” says Groom. “If there is to be a revival, it will depend on the talents, energy and enterprise of northerners. Groom, who covered the economic revival of the area for the Financial Times in the late 1990s, has long argued that there is a richer story to tell about its people beyond the stereotypes of whippets and flat caps. These stereotypes, “often perpetuated by northerners”, have become “a blight on perceptions of the north and may even damage its prospects,” he once argued. In 1913, Lancashire produced two-thirds of the world output of cotton cloth. By 1938, it was only 25%.

HarperNorth have bought World English rights to the next two books by Brian Groom, author of the bestselling Northerners: A History, from the Ice Age to the Present Day. Northern writers, activists, artists and comedians are celebrated the world over, from Wordsworth, the Brontes and Gaskell to LS Lowry, Emmeline Pankhurst and Peter Kay. St Oswald and Bede shaped the spiritual and cultural landscapes of Britain and Europe, and the world was revolutionised by the inventions of Richard Arkwright and the Stephensons. The north has exported some of sport’s biggest names and defined the sound of generations, from the Beatles to Britpop. While Northerners charts the story of “great” historic individuals, Groom also dedicates time to dialect and landscape as well as northerners’ relationship to immigration, leisure, and work. In the wake of the Brexit vote, it is impossible not to try and situate those themes within the context of contemporary discussions about identity. Groom concludes by drawing a link between the traditionalism espoused by the northern “royalists” in the 17th century Civil Wars and the decision to vote Leave in the 2016 referendum. Whether it was steel-makers in Sheffield, glass-makers in St Helens or the Lever Brothers revolutionising soap in Bolton, the north was, arguably, the Silicon Valley of its day. It was also where the political resistance to capitalist forces first emerged. In Bradford, where the Independent Labour Party and the Trades Union Congress first met, and in Manchester, where Emmeline Pankhurst organised the suffragette movement. Brian Groom is a journalist and one of the foremost experts on British regional and national affairs. His career was spent mainly at the Financial Times, where he did many of the top writing and editing jobs. He is also a former editor of Scotland on Sunday, which he launched as deputy editor and which won many awards. Originally from Stretford, Lancashire (now part of Greater Manchester), he returned to live in the north – in Saddleworth, south Pennines – in 2015.

Iron Age

But being Northern must have started somewhere, sometime, among people. Groom traces our ancestors to a camp of ancient Britons near Scarborough in 9,000 BC. It later moved to Filey, but is now closed. In those days, England was divided into Britannia Inferior and Britannia Superior. Guess which was the North? Right first time, and nothing much has changed. Trying to write an objective review is daft, so I'm gonna openly admit to being extremely biased towards this book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book which will appeal to anyone with an interest in the north, whether they were born, live or work there or just visit for holidays. It is a celebration of the diverse groups of people who have made the north their home as well as a recognition of the manifold events that have shaped not only the story of this region, but also that of the UK and beyond.

This authoritative new history of place and people lays out the dramatic events that created the north – waves of migration, invasions and battles, and transformative changes wrought on European culture and the global economy. In a sweeping narrative that takes us from the earliest times to the present day, the book shows that the people of the north have shaped Britain and the world in unexpected ways. Author Brian Groom: It’s certainly evolving. Globalisation and the internet are weakening it, but I’d be astonished if it died out after all these centuries.Brian Groom is a journalist and a leading expert on British regional and national affairs. His career was spent mainly at the Financial Times, where he was assistant editor and worked in various capacities. He is also a former editor of Scotland on Sunday, which he launched as deputy editor and which won many awards. Originally from Stretford, Lancashire, he returned to live in the north – in Saddleworth, South Pennines – in 2015. This is his first book. The book aims to be Northern England’s defining biography, laying out dramatic events that created the North – waves of migration, invasions and battles, and transformative changes affecting European culture and the global economy. Writer Brian Groom seeks to do just that in Northerners: A History, a definitive new chronicle of the region, the first to appear this century. I especially found the chapters on slavery/ cotton manufacturing and the women's movement really interesting as I had not been aware that the North part of England had played such an influential part, first in terms of commerce and then later in abolishing slavery both here and in America. And much of the change in women's equality, was pioneered by very strong Northern women.