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| Pies and Prejudice: In Search of the North | 
 enlarge | Author: Stuart Maconie
Publisher: Ebury Press
Category: Book
List Price: £6.99
Buy Used: £1.49
You Save: £5.50 (79%)
New (30) from £2.42
Avg. Customer Rating:  53 reviews
Sales Rank: 1480
Media: Paperback
Pages: 354
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 1
ISBN: 0091910234
Dewey Decimal Number: 914.270486
EAN: 9780091910235
ASIN: 0091910234
Publication Date: February 7, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Cynical moneyspinner March 30, 2008
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
Overall this is a disappointing read - it seemed to me like Maconie had spent a couple of spare weekends to pay desultory visits to a few random Northern towns, filled it in a bit with some notes cribbed out of an A Level social history text, added in some muddled contradictory theories about why the North is better than the South and waited for the royalties to pour in. There are some funny lines and anecdotes but a lot of the writing is erratic and could have done with a firm going over by a decent editor - over and over he makes references then leaves you uncertain to what he's talking about until several paragraphs later. For me the two most irritating parts of this book are these: first, the gall of a man deploring the 'South's' appalling stereotypes for the North while both reinforcing them and furiously churning out his own about Southerners (everyone in the South is called Tarquin apparently). And two, the brass neck of complaining about the media's fascination with London's Millenium Bridge (rather than Newcastle's), his disgust demonstrated in his participating in a media production about the former. Read Simon Armitage's All Points North instead.
The view from the West March 21, 2008
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
I was interested to read this because I have visited many of the places covered in it, and for the most part I enjoy the actual writing. I do think it's a false claim to say this is about the North - it's almost entirely the North West with a just a few token places from the other side thrown in. But as time went on, I get fed up with the chip on the shoulder, anti-Southernishness of it all, and also the idea that the South is the same as London or even the Home Counties. I come from Devon so regard myself from outside the whole North/South divide, and I found his view of the West just as prejudiced and hackneyed and limited as he thinks all Southerneres are about the North. If he could just have confined himself to facts and travelogue, it all would have been much better.
 Good not-too-demanding and humorous read... March 14, 2008
I read all the time for my job - so,at home, I don't read many books and just read magazines and comics. But I actually looked forward to this one every night - and that's very rare for me. With a title like that, I had to buy it. The other reviews are fair enough. I can't really see people from the South being too interested in a book about the North (and vice versa), but it's good-natured jibes all round, and with sudden surprising flashes of seriousness when The Troubles, The Moors Murders, and race riots, for example, are discussed. But, in general, it's a hotch-potch (or is that hot-pot?) of interesting facts, gentle and humorous intentionally biased opinions, and a few laugh-out-loud moments. Flags a little in places, as if it's a long magazine article stretched out to fill a book, but I have almost finished reading it now, and have enjoyed nearly every moment. On balance, a great, not-too-demanding read, but probably by Northerners for Northerners.
(I am writing from Cheshire - the bit that used to be in Lancashire - the book explains all that...)
 Pies and `Prejudice March 11, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I don't know why some people are so sniffy about this book. It's as if they are criticising it for being something it isn't. It's not a Lonely Planet Guide for tourists with recommendations for B&B in Blackpool. It's rather an idiosyncratic, affectionate, but sharp view of aspects of the north. As an inveterate northerner, I loved it. As did my partner and family. I live in Huddersfield, but it doesn't spoil the book because it barely gets a mention. We took it on a weeks holiday in Oslo and it kept us sane. One of the few books that made us giggle out loud to the disconcertion of our Norwegian hosts. Maybe our sense of humour is infantile, but more probably because he manages to puncture the stereotypes with wit and fun without denegrating the north. Maconie obviously loves the north, and perhaps you need to live here to appreciate that. It's not a travelogue, but a personal view of aspects of the north that he enjoys. It pokes gentle fun at elements of the north that northerners like and love. I can't imagine anyone living in Gloucestershire would enjoy it or even understand it.
Entertaining but rather shallow and without focus March 9, 2008
I'm not sure what the author is trying to achieve in this book or who the target audience might be. It is not a book covering in depth what binds people from the north together or what differenciates attitudes. The social commentaries are good and the authors views are sound. It's difficult to cover these subjects in this kind of book but an attempt is made to put towns in their hisorical perspective. I know the guy is a football fan but I'm not sure how he can dismiss Rugby League, the historical sporting symbol of the M62 corridor and cumbria in a couple of derogatory sentences. This is an easy book to read and entertaining in parts but would be better if arranged in themes rather than as an ad-hoc travelogue.
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