A SADDLEWORTH-BASED author hopes to make it big as he enters a new world – by telling the story of what is around us.
Brian Groom has penned Northerners: A History, which details the contribution the north of England has made to British life from the Ice Age to the present day.
As well as historical events, like at least six Roman emperors ruling from York and the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria being Europe’s leading cultural and intellectual centre, there are other things worth noting.
Writers, activists, artists and comedians are celebrated the world over, from Wordsworth, the Brontes and Gaskell to LS Lowry, Emmeline Pankhurst and Peter Kay.
The world was revolutionised by the inventions of Richard Arkwright and the Stephensons and, of course, the north has exported some of sport and music’s biggest names.
It is a departure from Brian’s usual writing, which saw him become editor of The Scotsman and assistant editor of the Financial Times newspapers.
But the man now living on Chew Valley Road in Greenfield admits he loved the process and the things he discovered during his research.
Saddleworth also gets a mention, mainly relating to the switch from the West Riding of Yorkshire in 1974.
The 66-year-old said: “There were things that surprised me as I was doing my research. The most surprising was that working class people in Lancashire had a strong tendency to vote Conservative.
“It’s clear in the data that happened until quite late in the 20th century, whereas in other parts of the north, they first voted Liberal then later Labour.
“Saddleworth is mentioned. I’ve a chapter in the book about rivalries between different parts of the north.
“So the area gets mentioned in the context of 1974 and the debatable land lying on the Lancashire-Yorkshire border.
“I also mention the White Rose Society and people insisting on having the West Riding on their address in relation to the broader relationship between the two counties.
“It’s the first book I’ve had published, so it’s definitely different from the journalism that I’ve done.”
Northerners: A History, which is released on Thursday, April 14 and is priced £14.99, is described as ‘a work of unrivalled scale and ambition.’
Brian has received several plaudits about Northerners, with Stuart Maconie – who penned Pies and Prejudice – saying: “Northerners is rigorous, digressive, discursive, always entertaining and enlightening, as full of good things as the North itself.”
George Parker, political editor of the Financial Times, added: “Brian Groom is one of the most respected journalists of his generation – an essential writer on politics and business and a tireless champion of the north.”
Adam Boulton summed it up with: “Anything by Brian Groom is worth reading,” while The Guardian’s North of England editor, Helen Pidd, said: “Few people are better placed to write the story of northerners than Brian Groom.”
Researching right the way through history opened the author’s own eyes to many things, with many old books from second hand sellers so he could read up on different subjects.
What has been going on around him, the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns, also had an effect.
Not least because it helped put his research on to paper.
However, as he found out, illness is not exactly new.
Brian, who hails originally from Stretford, added: “I probably had doing a book on northerners on my mind for about 10 years.
“When I left the Financial Times in 2014, the plan was to move back north, do a bit of freelancing and start work on the book.
“It started quite slowly, picked up a couple of years ago, then when the first lockdown came I was getting on with it very rapidly.
“When lockdown came around, I was mainly researching the very early stuff, the Anglo-Saxon period.
“But I kept coming across examples of disease. A plague has occurred throughout English history and keeps coming back.”
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