Another professional Northerner (who doesn't live there anymore) tells us all how great Eccles is and how he hates London (despite living and working there for years). Stuart falls into the usual rut trod by many before - he starts by and attack on London cabbies, waffles on about how 'down to earth' Oldham folk are and how you can't get a decent chip south of Watford. Why, in a book about the North, does he spend half the opening chapter recycling the usual stale old tosh about London (unfriendly, stuck-up, black boogies etc)? When he (finally) gets round to writing about north of Stoke he improves massively. Any book that makes you want to go to Wigan has to be doing something right. Bury comes across as a gastronomic paradise and I now know the tribal differences between Scousers and Woolybacks. He even admits that Manchester is really in the Midlands. A good read, well written and had me laughing. If only he didn't confuse 'Southern' with 'Posh' .

A truly wonderful read for all Northerners in exile 'darn sarf', but also provides a very engaging, intelligent perspective on the North of England. It's like Bill Bryson on Black Pudding. He's a very funny lad!