Now Then: A Biography of Yorkshire

Now Then is a book that explores the essence of Yorkshire and its people, featuring interviews, social history, and personal anecdotes. It offers an affectionate but unsparing look at the county, its inhabitants, and their unique lives, including its contributions to football and witch-burning.

Format: Hardback
Length: 448 pages
Publication date: 05 October 2023
Publisher: Atlantic Books

An enlightening, enjoyable, and frequently very funny journey into what makes Yorkshire stand out from the crowd ...
a fascinating insight into our wonderful region and the people that make it what it is.

The Yorkshire Post
Written from the perspective of an exiled Yorkshireman, this bestselling, award-winning author returns to his native county to discover and reveal its soul.

We all know the tropes - Geoffrey Boycott incarnate, ferret-leggers and folk singers gambolling about Ilkley Moor without appropriate headgear - but why is Yorkshire God's Own County?

Exiled Yorkshireman Rick Broadbent sets out to find out whether Yorkshireness is something that can be summed up and whether it even matters in a shrinking world. Along the way, he meets rock stars, ramblers, and rhubarb growers as he searches for answers and a decent cup of tea.

Now Then is a biographical mosaic of a place that has been victimized and stereotyped since the days of William the Conqueror. Incorporating social history, memoir, and author interviews, Now Then is not a hagiography. Broadbent visits the scenes of industrial neglect and forgotten tragedy, as well as examining the truth about well-known Yorkshire figures and institutions. Featuring Kes, the Sheffield Outrages, and the most controversial poem ever written, as well as a heroic dog, a lost albatross, and a stuffed crocodile, Now Then is an affectionate but unsparing look at a county, its inhabitants, and their flinty vowels.

This is a funny, wise, and searching account of a place that claims to have given the world its first football club and England its last witch-burning. It does include cobbles, trumpets, and stiff-necked, wilful obstinacy, but it is also about ordinary Yorkshire and its extraordinary lives.

Weight: 676g
Dimension: 242 x 162 x 37 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781838957360
Edition number: Main