Yorkshire: There and Back

by Andrew Martin

In There and Back, Andrew Martin celebrates Britain's most charismatic county, looking back at the Yorkshire of his 1970s childhood and as it is today.Journeying to every historic corner, Martin writes affectionally about its past, present and peculiarities. York is an evolving city of chocolate, trains, pubs and tourists. Scarborough should be viewed as the posh place it once was, with surprising secrets pertaining to Adolf Hitler and the sea. Leeds is seen as the 'hard' town with its party goers and late-night provocateurs, but its indoor market never fails to offer a sense of quintessential Yorkshireness on a rainy Saturday afternoon, with milky tea served in beakers and the Leeds United result coming through by osmosis. And the Moors and Dales continue to boast beauty and danger alike.Effortlessly entertaining and wonderfully detailed, There and Back is a memoir, guide, and all-round appreciation of 'God's own county'.Praise for Andrew Martin'There is no one else who is writing like Andrew Martin today...unique and important' Guardian'Iconoclastic, entertaining and often devastatingly witty' Barry Forshaw, Independent'He can stop you in your tracks with a well-turned phrase' Sunday Times'A genuinely funny writer...also a daring one' The Times

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, History

344 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 5, 2022

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Andrew Martin (born 6 July 1962) is an English novelist and journalist.

Martin was brought up in Yorkshire, studied at the University of Oxford and qualified as a barrister. He has since worked as a freelance journalist for a number of publications while writing novels, starting with Bilton, a comic novel about journalists, and The Bobby Dazzlers, a comic novel set in the North of England, for which he was named Spectator Young Writer of the Year. His series of detective novels about Jim Stringer, a railwayman reassigned to the North Eastern Railway Police in Edwardian England, includes The Necropolis Railway, The Blackpool Highflyer, The Lost Luggage Porter, Murder at Deviation Junction and Death on a Branch Line. He has also written the non-fiction book; How to Get Things Really Flat: A Man's Guide to Ironing, Dusting and Other Household Arts.

Reviews

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

As another expatriated Yorkshire person living in t’smoke I found this beguiling. From the journeys north, to Pike Hills, to the seaside (Brid if you’re cheap, Scarborough if flush) to the Peasholm Park naval battle, rough nights out in Leeds pubs: I understood it all and the search for a cohesive Yorkshire identity. Truly you have to be away to understand going back. Laughed out loud several times. Having read a couple of his trains books I said we shared the same dry humour, now I know why.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yorkshire, by its very size and diversity, has inspired thousands of books, and continues to be a dependable seam to be mined by authors, journalists and television producers. Andrew Martin’s affectionate but unsentimental survey of the county in the immediate post-pandemic period is considered, detailed and always entertaining. Perhaps his status as a Yorkshireman who has lived in London for many years gives him a distinct perspective. He starts his explorations some 150 miles from Yorkshire in London’s King’s Cross, the starting point for many a journey to the broad acres, and one which he knows particularly well. From there the cities of York (his childhood home) and Leeds get plenty of attention before his journey radiates out to take in the rest of the county (well, most of it - apart from a chapter on Sheffield, South Yorkshire doesn’t get much of a look in). The author’s style and journalistic flair for getting to the heart of a story or a place make Yorkshire: There and Back a delight for those of us who live here and a fantastic introduction for those unfortunate souls who don’t.

[Philip Curran · Rating 3 out of 5]

I live in York so I found it an enjoyable read. I think it would be a less rewarding read if you don’t know the places he writes about. There is a nice personal feel to the book and I am the same age as the author so I appreciated a lot of his references to the recent history of Yorkshire .
It’s more of a ramble around the main cities and landmarks with a few memories and facts thrown in.

[Stephen A. Matthews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Andrew Martin is a skilled writer and this was a wonderful book to read. Yorkshire (the original county) is the largest county in the UK and as such it is diverse in its people, cultures, cities/towns and landscapes. All of this is captured eloquently by Andrew Martin. There was not a chapter or section I did not enjoy reading. And, I learned a great deal; mostly historical detail about people and places, in those places I knew less well. The chapters on those places I do know well (York, Scarborough, Whitby, Bridlington and Hull) were fascinating and mostly spot on (though how one can write so well about Whitby and not mention Captain James Cook is quite a feat).

[Michael Sweeney · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a relatively recent arrival to the county I enjoyed this gentle meditation on Yorkshire. There are many useful pointers to exploring the county more fully (Filey in particular, in my case). He captures why I like the West Riding but can’t really warm to Leeds. Sheffield gets a backhanded compliment. The writer also provides useful related book and film recommendations (A Walk Invisible, Sally Wainwright’s film of the Brontë family, is especially good). It’s a pleasant, informative read about a beautiful county that looms large in our national imagination.

[Harry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ultimately, a potentially unique approach to place-based writing (the relation to the Yorkshire region for those of us now based outside) that descends into the usual trappings of the genre. Whilst the author lampoons professional Yorkshiremen, he remains trapped in the psychodrama of being one. Tends to do the usual of listing facts (usually overemphasising architecture at the cost of people themselves), interspersed with personal anecdotes, with minimal to actually say about the what, how, and why of regional change. However, I gave two stars to appreciate how 'train-brained' it is.

[Ade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Discursive, highly readable amble around the county. No overarching argument is here to be developed or definitive conclusions reached, but there are plenty of interesting and quirky facts pertaining to Yorks and its environs as? Martin veers quixotically from one track to another. Only a tendency to quote his previous works on the subject slightly too often and a surfeit of minor proofreading errors mar the easy flow and tumble of the narrative.

[Jonathan Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Being from Yorkshire was the reason for reading this. The section on York was excellent and really an honest interpretation of York and living there. The Leeds section lets the book down. Clearly the author doesn’t like Leeds and as I come from there and do, this book doesn’t seem to give a fair reflection. York is great but Yorkshire is so much more!

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed reading this! Martin's writing paints a vivid picture and I found his experiences fascinating, I always enjoy learning more about Yorkshire and York in particular, and I really liked the yorkshire feeling of the book.

[Martin Hannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written and enjoyable without being totally memorable.