Order
Online
Click &
Collect
Free Local
Delivery
Author: Groom, Brian
North West England
Published on 14 April 2022 by HarperCollins Publishers (HarperNorth) in the United Kingdom.
Hardback | 432 pages
163 x 243 x 41 | 730g
A Waterstones Best History Book of 2022
The bestselling history of the North of England as told through the lives of its inhabitants.
Entertaining The Times
Definitive The Mirror
Highly readable Financial Times
A work of unrivalled scale and ambition, Northerners is the defining biography of northern England.
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.
At least six Roman emperors ruled from York. The Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria was Europes leading cultural and intellectual centre. Cartimandua, Queen of the Brigantes, deserves to be as famous as Boudica. Neanderthals and Vikings, Central European Jews, African-Caribbeans and South Asians, have all played their part in the making and remaking of the north. 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 sports biggest names and defined the sound of generations, from the Beatles to Britpop.
Northerners also shows convincingly how the past echoes down the centuries. The devastation of factory and pit closures in the 1980s, for example, recalled the trauma of William the Conquerors Harrying of the North. The book charts how the north-south divide has ebbed and flowed and explores the very real divisions between northerners, such as the rivalry between Lancashire and Yorkshire.
Finally, Brian Groom explores what northernness means today and the crucial role the north can play in Britains future. As new forces threaten the fabric of the UK again, this landmark book could scarcely be more timely.
