Some prejudices never change. The belief that some people are hicks is always with us, and metropolitans everywhere regard provincials with disdain. Ask a Parisian, or a New Yorker, of this century or any other. So the central premise of this book (when it comes, at last, on page 214) seems a banality on which to essay: “The idea of the North as poor and primitive is rooted deep in the national psyche.”

But Maconie wants to see southern British antipathy to the North, and vice versa, as unique. Let him. The result? A curate's egg. The writing is good for something that reads like a script for stand-up comedy. “Hang around Huyton bus station and you will see scores of weasel-faced youths ... pallid from lack of vitamin C and generally looking for something to urinate on or set fire to.” Or “I thought Wigan was a spa town ... because we had a branch of Spar”. Scripts don't go on for 338 pages, though, and Maconie's style is better suited to the medium where, as a DJ, he excels. The relentless digs at Mrs Thatcher pall, and Maconie comes across as a cheeky chappie of (misdirected?) energy and ability.

This travelogue concerns places rather than people, but there is much of interest. For example, the “completely non-selective” Maharishi School in Skelmersdale “ranks consistently in the top 2.5 per cent nationwide in league tables, a ranking that puts Eton and Harrow to shame”. Strange things happen on Ilkley Moor baht 'at.

Pies and Prejudice: In Search of the North by Stuart Maconie
Ebury Press, £6.99

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