The Northumbrians
By Dan Jackson
Hurst, 320pp, £20/$34.79
Dan Jackson grew up on the banks of the Tyne to parents from Newcastle and pit-village Northumberland.
Later in life, he came to realise that not everywhere was like the place he had grown up.
“Why were the pit villages so close-knit, and where did that instinctive warmth and kindness come from? Why did my grandparents say of their tough inter-war childhoods, ‘we had nowt, but we were happy’; and were they kidding themselves? Why did my forebears and so many of my school pals end up in the military? Why were we so obsessed with football? Why do we love drinking so much, and why did the pub chat of my father and his pals invariably get around to discussing local hard men, like ‘Billy One Punch’ and that bloke at Smiths Dock who could twist nails with his fingers? Indeed, why was working so essential to earning and maintaining one’s self-respect? And, last of all, why was everyone so funny?”
