The Challenge

[Ian, Moderator]

Thanks for your suggestions Cynan and Karina. If you want to do full promotion of your books please open new threads in the Authors section of our discussions board.

[Kim]

Just found this- been trying to sort this in my reading diary. But would love to join in with this challenge. I will look back at the books I have read this year and try to update my list.

[K.B.]

This sounds like fun! My book, Once Removed, is set in Yorkshire (the West Riding, if you're splitting Yorkshire into 3). Marfield is a pseudonym for a large village up on the moors.

[A.L.]

The Abbot's Gibbet is westcountry
Any of the cadfael books are Shrewsbury/wales

Non Fiction wise Mary Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley is scottish. Personally I found this hard going.

Eulogy's Secret is london

Wuthering Heights is Yorkshire
and Tess of the Durbevilles is Darbyshire

[Bill]

A question for the experts.. I'm currently reading Tied Up In Tinsela Roderick Alleyn mystery. So far, it's set in some vague location in England, near a prison on the Moors. The only town listed is Downlow (I think). The estate Troy is visiting is called Halberds.. Any inkling which UK county might be suitable for my UK Challenge? Or should I just suck it up and not put the book in any particular location?

[Sue]

Could it be Dartmoor prison near Princetown, Devon?

[Bill]

They call it The Vale, Sue. Probably made up, but maybe using Dartmoor as an example.. Thanks for that.

[Ian, Moderator]

Dartmoor is the only English prison on the Moors that I know of Bill

[Bill]

Ian wrote: "Dartmoor is the only English prison on the Moors that I know of Bill"

Then I'll go with Devon.. :0).. Thanks all.

[Mandy]

Cassandra, would a biography count for East Yorks? I read a book this year about Amy Johnson. My hometown of Hull has many notable "sons and daughters" Perhaps you could consider The Dark Winter or John Bakers novels The Chinese Girland of course Robinson Crusoe did start his journey from Hull!

[Sue]

There are some interesting novels for Wales in the kindle daily deal today. Luckily for me the library has copies of them all!!!

[[deleted user]]

I am finding that finding books for Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland extremely difficult. Any ideas?

[Sue]

I have just got Feet in Chains and The Valley, the City, the Village and Everything I Found on the Beach from the library to add to the few I have already for Wales. Have been googling a few areas in Scotland = only a couple of ideas - for Glasgow and Aberdeen and not even started on Northern Ireland!!! Suggestions would be good for me too!

[Sue]

This one looks good for Derry -Shadows on Our Skin.

[Sue]

Today's kindle deal Diamond Star Halo appears to qualify for Monmouth. It has some very good reviews too. Guess that will be downloaded despite my my resolution - 1 in, 1 out!

[Caroline]

Vikki wrote: "If anyones looking books from Northern Ireland the first one that springs to my mind is any of the Kevin & Sadie books by Joan Lingard. The first in the series is The Twelfth Day of July Teen boo..."

Jacky wrote: "Vikki, I love these books! Although I read them as an adult, I found them deeply moving and enjoyed the whole series. I read them when I was working in London and had met some "mixed Irish" couples..."

That's such a blast from the past - we had to read them in school. I remember enjoying them but I'd completely forgotten about them until I saw these posts! I remember it was nice reading something about life closer to home as most of the books we read were from the US.

Caroline Doherty de Novoa

[Caroline]

Vicky wrote: "Found a book in the library called Reading on Location with lists of books for different countries, but it also splits the UK down into some of the counties (although disappointingly this also incl..."

As I'm from Tyrone I'm curious to hear what books are listed from Tyrone. Thanks

[[deleted user]]

This is so interesting! I have read most Norah Lofts books which are set in Suffolk.

[Sue]

In the paper today there is mention of The Norfolk Mystery - 1st in a projected series of 39 'County Guides'! Might make finding something for those pesky counties a bit easier - now have to just hope they are good!

[[deleted user]]

My book is set in Cornwall, (Bodmin Moor and Bodmin town)
Old Sins Long Shadows

[Chatterjak]

Val McDermid should be good for Scottish locations! Katherine John for Wales.

[Bill]

A question for you folks. What district (shire?) is Edinburgh in? Everyone I check seems to border the city. I'm presuming it's Midlothian/Edinburghshire?

[Ian, Moderator]

I'm guessing, but as one of the Edinburgh footy teams is called Heart of Midlothian - Hearts for short, I'd lay odds that you presume right Bill.

[Bill]

Thanks, Ian. I'll go with that unless someone corrects me.

[Tom]

Birmingham and The Black Country are great but neglected locations for crime novels. Check out Brum cop DCI Matt Proctor novels, e.g TOO SMART TO DIE on amazon.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

[Pamela]

Darn ... my novels take place in France, Central Asia, US, China & Mongolia. I think that leaves UK out as far as current management. Of course there were the 13 colonies. See: She Rides with Genghis Khan, and Return of the French Blue for my exotic settings! amzn.to/17n6kD5 There is a sale on She Rides, this weekend. 99cents!

[Anna]

*gulp* This one is harder than the USA challenge.

[Jules]

Hi there, I like the idea of this challenge but would like to know how you decide where the main setting for a story is. For example I'm reading The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins at the moment, which started off in London, moved to Cumberland and now is taking place in Hampshire. Where would I put this? Any ideas?

[Em]

If there are 2-3 settings, I've just picked the one where most of the book is set eg. by no. of pages or if that's difficult then by where key parts of the plot take place.

However, some times this is impossible: I've just read which covers the length and breadth of "middle" England but too many locations to really make it count for any specific one!

[Catherine]

hey Ian...what are your feelings on Guernsey and Jersey?

[Ian, Moderator]

Not UK counties Catherine, but you can have one of them as a country in the Around the World Challenge.

[Catherine]

cool...thanks Ian :)

[Catherine]

hey...Ian...you dropped the ball! what happened to you? I seem to have lost my co-pilot! :(

[Ian, Moderator]

Reminds me of my wicket keeping days.

[Mercia]

I've finally noticed that my birth-suburb of Dundonald is listed under Down. Baffled as to why as it's a suburb of Belfast (admittedly containing about 10% of the city's population) but it's just a rather boring suburb. Anyway just thought I'd point out that the far more obvious D to replace it with is Downpatrick, which may or may not have connections to a bishop with a strong concern for sufferers of ophiophobia.

[Ian]

Hi. Just seeing where youve all got to. Lots of books with Devon as their location. If youre stuck drop by the Devon Book Club (goodreads group) and we can help. Would also love to hear about any books youve read set in our beautiful county.

[Leni]

Oh, wow. I thought I might join this one once I'd gotten a bit further on my other challenges, but then I saw the list. I had absolutely no idea there were that many counties! I think I'll have to cheat a bit and include books I've already read, not just this year but over my lifetime! Either that or I just do a mini-challenge of reading my way around Wales, and then see about the rest after that.

[Nigel]

One book, many counties:-

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Travelling-Wi...

Merry Christmas to you all.

Nigel.

[Anna]

This is a useful site, it lists books set in different counties/states and places. It may save a lot of time searching.

http://www.tripfiction.com/

[Maggie]

Hello. I've just joined the group. Am I too late to join this challenge or is it ongoing?

[Mercia]

ongoing and with 92 counties its continually going on

[Liz, Moderator]

Maggie wrote: "Hello. I've just joined the group. Am I too late to join this challenge or is it ongoing?"

Never too late to start the challenge. Welcome and good luck Maggie :)

[Maggie]

My UK Counties Challenge is up and running -

13. "What Alice Knew" by T A Cotterell is set in Bristol which, I think, used to be in Gloucestershire although the postal address, apparently, was Bristol, Somerset. I'm sure someone out there will tell me which is correct.

[Tania]

By the time you finish this you will learn a lot about where towns are compared to where you thought they were.

[Leni]

I'm amazed there are so many counties in such a small geographical area! At first I thought you must be counting county boroughs, but it appears not.

What year is this list from? All I can work out is that it's counties prior, at least, to 1974.

[Ian, Moderator]

It is a list first used by Nicola who had the idea for this challenge. It is the counties before we got the newer metropolitan counties like Merseyside and Greater Manchester which was about 1974. I then set the challenge up so I get the blame lol. Tbh I'm just as baffled much of the time. Helps if you were a nerdy 15 year old kid in 1974 who really liked geography and cricket......er, guilty.

[Leni]

Ian wrote: "Tbh I'm just as baffled much of the time. Helps if you were a nerdy 15 year old kid in 1974 who really liked geography and cricket......er, guilty. "

Ah, well... I was a nerdy 15 year old kid once, but that's as far as the similarity goes. lol!

But I have at least managed to work out which of those pre-74 counties I live in. And honestly, today's metropolitan counties are at least as confusing. I live in a county borough within a county and I'm still not sure which of them should go on my mailing address.

[Ian, Moderator]

Prompted by a question by Maggie, I've just added a note to the list of counties:

"Though York is the traditional county town of Yorkshire, it didn't form part of any of the three historic Ridings but rather stood on it's own as the City of York at the point where the three intersected. I'm therefore happy for the current city of York to count as any of the three."

This overrules any foolish rulings this pre 1974 Lancastrian may have made in the past. Feel free to backdate and claim some other Ridings if you've visited York more than once on your reading travels.

The 2nd coloured map on the Yorkshire Ridings Society web page below sort of explains.

http://www.yorkshireridings.org/news/...

[Vicky]

A useful list for this challenge :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor...

[Tania]

That looks helpful and I really need to get back to this challenge.