A comprehensive book about the North East and its people – I read The Northumbrians by Dan Jackson
Northumbrians – the blurb
The Northumbrians have been overlooked by British and global history, but they’ve made astonishing contributions to both. Dan Jackson sets out to recover this lost history, exploring the deep roots of Northumbrian culture―hard work and heavy drinking, sociability and sentimentality, militarism and masculinity―through centuries of border warfare and dangerous industry. He explains what we can learn about Northumbria’s people from its landscape and architecture, and revisits the Northumbrian Enlightenment that gave the world the locomotive and the lightbulb. This story reaches right to the present day, as this extraordinary region finds itself caught between an indifferent south and an increasingly confident Scotland. From the Venerable Bede and the prince-bishops of Durham to Viz and Geordie Shore, this vital new history reveals a part of England with an uncertain future, but whose people remain as remarkable as ever.
Adoptive Northumbrian
As an adoptive Northumbrian I was always going to read this book. I love history and reading (in case you hadn’t guessed) so it was just my cup of tea. This book is clearly a labor of love for Jackson. He seems passionate about history, is from the area (well he kind of had to be) and still lives locally. He even took several of the photos that puncture the text himself. It is without doubt extensively researched and so wide ranging taking in everything from Gazza’s bid to save Raoul Moat to 1830s texts on political economy.
I expected it to be lineal in nature as most books of this kind are. It wasn’t, instead each chapter took on a theme such as work and play or education and achievements. This, whilst slightly wrong footing me, allowed the book to be very holistic in its approach. Swooping from here to there to illustrate Jackson’s points.
It very much felt like an academic piece of work – the introduction setting out Jackson’s intention in the way a students dissertation would. And the language was clearly from a person highly educated. Which brings me to my main point – who is the book aimed at? Not the miners and the traditional working man so clearly depicted by Jackson. Nor the outsider as, lets be honest, likening Whitley Bay’s North Sea to the Bay of Naples is a slight exaggeration that smacks at a face only a mother could love. In this sense it does appeal to a niche audience but if you’re lucky enough to be one of them you will enjoy it immensely.