Customer Reviews
Entertaining and perceptive - By: M. V. Clarke, 28 Aug 2008 
This is a superb book; although it has the appearance of belonging to the recently emerged sub genre of humorous & slightly outrageous travel writing, it quickly become apparent that there's far more to it than that. Maconie takes us on a selective tour of the North of England, visiting both his old haunts & other key areas, such as Liverpool, Harrogate & other parts of Yorkshire. Along the way, there are recollections of various amusing personal incidents & a stock of good one-liners, but alongside these, there's a depth of historical, cultural, political & social information & analysis, which is both well researched & convincingly argued. Well worth reading.
Whose pies are they? - By: Peter Wade, 21 Aug 2008 I was on a cruise & the comedian was Bobby Bennett. In a question & answer session someone mentioned that he had been mentionedin Stuart Maconie's Pies & Prejudice as he was the compare of Junior Showtimein the 1970s with people like Bonnie Langford & Pauline Quirke.
That led me to read this book. The jokes about the north south divided is a bit of a cliche for comedians but the cliches are all we can go on without any facts. This book goes someway towards giving us some facts.
He story about the Wigan liking of pies is quite good.
A Bolton man who breathlessly tells his workman from Wigan about a new lunchtime offer at local pub
" A pie , a pint & a woman for 80p" The Wiganer seems unimpressed 80p repeats his workmate excitedly
H'm declares the Wiganer warily " Whose pies are they?"
He went to Blackpool when he was young & said when on the train he took out a book & began to read. the whole carriage looked at him as if he had taken out a cuckoo clock or a lacrosse stick.
I learnt that Roger Whittaker had got it all wrongin the song Durham Town (the leavin') he said he sat on the banks of the river Tyne whereas it should have been the Wear.
I have visited quite a few of the places he mentions but only briefly. It makes me want to visit them all again. A perceptive look at the north by someone who knows what he is talking about.
He should now do a similar book about the south
He says the BBC has A northern correspondent & that it would be laughable if anyone thought they should have southern correspondent. the South views the North as some sort of foreign country that has to be explained to from London & the home counties.
A good read & I have ordered his Cider with Roadies. Well recommended.
Well written, enjoyable and informative - By: TheMightyViton, 12 Aug 2008 
Overall I enjoyed reading this book & as others have said it certainly has inspired me to visit some of the places described. I liked the author's writing style & most of all I found most of the historical detail interesting & educational. However after reading through relatively huge sections on Liverpool, Manchester & Wigan I was disappointed to see places like Sheffield glossed over very briefly - surely Sheffield has more to offer than the time he spent discussing the National Museum of Pop Music?
YES THERE IS A NORTH - SOUTH DIVIDE: WE CAN LAUGH AT OURSELVES AND SOUTHERNERS CAN'T! - By: SDB MELLONIE, 01 Aug 2008 
BRILLIANT READ. OK - if you know the places Stuart writes about (I know the exact chippy he talks about down the road from Crewe station!) it helps but even if you don't & have never ventured north of Chalfont St Witless, it's still a great read. The two one star reviewers from "Darn Sarth" are obviously miffed at the fact that no-one can be bothered to write about "southerners" because, as Maconie points out early onin the book, there is not the strong identification of "being a southerner" as there is for those of us north of..well, according to Stuart it's north of Stoke.
It pokes fun of the north & does ask some tough questions at times but more than anything else, it is a great travelogue. Strike a light, Guv, you can't ask fairer than that....
Love and Hypocrisy : A Lancastrian View of the North - By: Lady of the Lake, 05 Jul 2008 There were pages I skippedin this book out of sheer irritation at his socialist, BBC politics; & others I have marked up to remind me to visit or revisit some of the placesin the North this southern girl loves.
His prejudice against the south is foolish & stereotyped; & his rants against middle class pursuits, whilst so obviously now being middle class himself, is blind hypocrisy. But, I would say it all adds to the charm of the book. If you want to get into the head of a northern working class lad, who became a middle class, southern media type complete with PC bias - then this is an illuminating piece of social historyin its own right.
As a travel guide it is very patchy: it goes into great depth about West Lancashire - but he speeds around much of the northin a matter of pages, completely missing out some very obvious illustrative places like North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire & York. However, when he goes into any depth he does make you want to go & explore the place for yourself - surely the objective of a travel book.
When he talks about your patch you notice the factual mistakes, & by the look of these reviews there are quite a number of them. All a little lax. However, the book has frequent 'laugh out loud' points, so if you treat it as a story a friend might tellin a pub, & not quite get his facts right, then that is really the tone of it. But where I am sure he will be factually correct, & was really rather interesting wasin the musical background of Manchester & Liverpool - obviously a subject he does know.
Allin all, worth a read on the train if you know the North, & can put up with the prejudice - & I think most can for the laugh; & the reminder that the north has a wonderful, rugged beauty that is quite different to the warm, charms of the south.
