Now Then

<p><b>''An enlightening, enjoyable and frequently very funny journey into what makes Yorkshire stand out from the crowd ... </b><b>a fascinating insight into our wonderful region and the people that make it what it is.''</b> <br><b><i>The Yorkshire Post</i></b><br><br><b>Written from the perspective of an exiled Yorkshireman this bestselling, award-winning author returns to his native county to discover and reveal its soul.</b><br><br>We all know the tropes - Geoffrey Boycott incarnate, ferret-leggers and folk singers gambolling about Ilkley Moor without appropriate headgear - but why is Yorkshire God''s Own County? <br>Exiled Yorkshireman Rick Broadbent sets out to find out whether Yorkshireness is something that can be summed up and whether it even matters in a shrinking world. Along the way he meets rock stars, ramblers and rhubarb growers as he searches for answers and a decent cup of tea. <br><br> <i>Now Then</i> is a biographical mosaic of a place that has been victimised and stereotyped since the days of William the Conqueror. Incorporating social history, memoir and author interviews, <i>Now Then</i> is not a hagiography. Broadbent visits the scenes of industrial neglect and forgotten tragedy, as well as examining the truth about well-known Yorkshire figures and institutions. Featuring <i>Kes</i>, the Sheffield Outrages and the most controversial poem ever written, as well as a heroic dog, a lost albatross and a stuffed crocodile, <i>Now Then</i> is an affectionate but unsparing look at a county, its inhabitants and their flinty vowels.<br><br> This is a funny, wise and searching account of a place that claims to have given the world its first football club and England its last witch-burning. It does include cobbles, trumpets and stiff-necked, wilful obstinacy, but it is also about ordinary Yorkshire and its extraordinary lives.</p>