'...(a) rich,evocative book. Part travelogue,part history,part examination of a nation in flux. It is all a delight'- Mail on Sunday
In the autumn of 1936,some 200 men from the Tyneside town of Jarrow marched 300 miles to London in protest against the destruction of their towns and industries. Precisely 80 years on,Stuart Maconie,walks from north to south retracing the route of the emblematic Jarrow Crusade.
Following history's footsteps,Maconie is in search of what Modern Britain is really like today. Travelling down the country's spine,Maconie moves through a land that is,in some ways,very much the same as the England of the thirties with its political turbulence,austerity,north/south divide,food banks and of course,football mania.
Yet in other ways,it is completely unrecognisable; highstreets peppered with pound shops and e-cigarette vendors,smoothie bars and Costas on every corner.
Maconie visits the great,established and yet evolving cities of Leeds,Sheffield and London,as well as the sleepy hamlets,quiet lanes and roaring motorways.
He meets those with stories to tell and whose voices build a funny,complex and entertaining tale of Britain,then and now. Written in Maconie's signature style,this is a fascinating exploration of a modern nation that,though looks and sounds strangely familiar,has been completely transformed.
Publisher: Ebury PublishingISBN: 9781785030543Number of pages: 384Weight: 260 gDimensions: 198 x 126 x 23 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'A tribute and a rallying call'- The Guardian
'Maconie's book is not only a heartfelt tribute to Wilkinson and the marchers,but a reaffirmation of the role of the personal within the political,and a rallying call for anyone stirred by the story of Jarrow'- The Observer
'With yet another conservative government refusing to budge it is hard to avoid Maconie's conclusion that persuading the uncommitted is as vital as ever'- New Statesman
'...(a) rich,evocative book. Part travelogue,part history,part examination of a nation in flux. It is all a delight'- Mail on Sunday
'Footsore in spacetime,hiking simultaneously through memory and landscape,in Long Road from Jarrow Stuart Maconie shadows the defiant,desperate and dignified crusade of 1936 through a modern world where everything has changed except for the austerity,the poverty,the national and global instability,the worrying ascendancy of fascism,and the resilient decency of ordinary people. This is a necessary book; a necessary journey through English identity,and one which you'll be glad that you embarked on. Now,yes,now is the hour.'- Alan Moore
Stuart Maconie
Stuart Maconie is a British journalist,author,DJ and television presenter,who has penned books on popular music,social history and British travel,as well as the acclaimed memoir Cider with Roadies. His latest book is The Nanny State Made Me.
Visit the Stuart Maconie author page
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