582 pages : 24 cm

Here is the north, this is where it lies, where it belongs, full of itself, high up above everything else, surrounded by everything that isn't the north, that's off the page, somewhere else...Paul Morley grew up in Reddish, less than five miles from Manchester and even closer to Stockport. Ever since the age of seven, old enough to form an identity but too young to be aware that 'southern' was a category, Morley has always thought of himself as a northerner. What that meant, he wasn't entirely sure. It was for him, as it is for millions of others in England, an absolute, indisputable truth. But he wondered why, when as a child he was so ready to abandon his Cheshire roots and support the much more successful Lancashire cricket team, and when as an adult he found he could travel between London and Manchester in less than two hours, he continued to say he was from the North. Forty years after walking down grey pavements on his way to school, Paul explores what it means to be northern and why those who consider themselves to be believe it so strongly

Includes index

pt. One: 'A something in the air' -- pt. Two: Through no fault of my own -- pt. Three: 13 June 1963 -- pt. Four: Making it all happen -- pt. Five: The five colours -- pt. Six: A leap forward through the past -- pt. Seven: The rest of the world rubbing off -- pt. Eight: For all the boys of Stockport -- pt. Nine: A special world apart -- pt. Ten: There must be change

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