It explores factors that divide northerners as well as those that unite them, such as rivalries between Lancashire and Yorkshire, Newcastle and Sunderland, Tyneside and West Yorkshire, Liverpool and Manchester.

I fear that in some sense the book wants to divide, that the author wants to leave us with uncertainty and open wounds rather than conclude with healing or at least aim towards it.When not enjoying the great outdoors with family and friends, she enjoys sitting down to watch a movie or curling up in a quiet corner with a good book. A few hundred years later, the Benedictine monk Bede is the original polymath as England’s first historian, as well as writing more than sixty works on science, cosmology, biblical commentary and orthography amongst other subjects.

Amazing that no one has apparently written this book before, but luckily Brian Groom has now made an excellent job of filling that gap. This book provides a sweeping and vivid narrative, starting from the earliest times, coupled with cross-cutting chapters on fascinating social and cultural themes. Worked for almost three decades at the Financial Times, where he did many of the top writing and editing jobs, including comment and analysis editor and political editor. But at other times, important figures from history are simply listed, with what made them peculiarly Northern often not explored.Still, it’s great to see a book concentrating on northern history, as so many British history books gloss over the north and almost completely focus on the south.

I have to confess to feeling somewhat frustrated at the dismissive treatment of Catherine Cookson, who was so much more than an author of sagas. A very well organised and accessible history from the ice age to the present day of the North of England. It may be just me, but I remember when I asked my grandad why he always wore a cap he said that it was something that miners did because before there were helmets it was all to easy to scrape your head on the roof in places where the mine wasn't particularly high. It really does near enough go back to Roman times, this North and South divide, but you begin to understand why and how impactful all those decisions, layered on top of each other, create the varied Northern landscape we see today. Like Northerners, it will combine historical narrative with social and cultural themes and colourful portraits of personalities, famous or not, involved in the story.However, I would have liked to have seen a chapter on Queer figures from the North to give this book its full potential.

Finally, Brian Groom explores what northernness means today and the crucial role the north can play in Britain's future. As histories go, this is very complete, from the first Northerners we known about right up to the present day. He is a journalist so knows how to tell a story, and the stories he tells here are never less than gripping.Neanderthals and Vikings, Central European Jews, African-Caribbeans and South Asians, have all played their part in the making and remaking of the north.