A Northerner in exile, Stuart Maconie goes on a journey in search of the North, attempting to discover where the clichés end and the truth begins. He travels from Wigan Pier to Blackpool Tower and Newcastle’s Bigg Market to the Lake District to find his own Northern Soul, encountering along the way an exotic cast of chippy Scousers, pie-eating woollybacks, topless Geordies, mad-for-it Mancs, Yorkshire nationalists and brothers in southern exile.

"Stuart Maconie is the best thing to come out of Wigan since the A58 to Bolton" - Peter Kay

"An heir to Alan Bennett … stirring and rather wonderful" - Anthony Quinn, Sunday Times

"Funnier than Bill Bryson. There’s lots to love about Maconie’s North – even for Southern Jessies" - Metro

"Maconie makes a jovial, self-deprecating narrator. Sharp and funny." - Guardian

"A lyrical, passionate, humorous and argumentative tour du force ... Imagine Nick Danzinger meets Nik Cohen meets Ricky Tomlinson and you've got the perfect blend of humorously incisive northern-travel writing. An early contender for best travel book of the year." - Big Issue North