Charles Nevin’s wryly entertaining love letter to his native county was published in hardback some time ago, but it had completely escaped my attention that the paperback edition came out at the end of 2006. Nothing daunted, I’m going to review it anyway, because if you haven’t caught up with … it’s not too late.
The attention-grabbing title isn’t a piece of gratuitous authorial hyperbole, it’s a quotation from Le Leys dans la Vallée by Honoré de Balzac. Really. It is.
When Charles Nevin touted the theory (the dying-of-love one) around Lancashire, he met with varying degrees of disbelief plus a few alternative theories, the most convincing of which was that a more probable cause of demise was likely to be “the cold, or chips”.
This engaging book is one of the best antidotes I know of to 21st Century blues. In it you can (among other things) learn how Napoleon III modelled the grand boulevards of Paris on Southport (maybe), why Butch Cassidy spoke with a Lancastrian accent (perhaps) and why Lancashire was and continues to be the birthplace of such a stunningly high proportion of the country’s comedians (definitely).
He must still be getting hate mail after this little stinger: “Forget the 10 famous Belgians; ask a Yorkshireman to name a famous Yorkshire comic.”
Charles Nevin (a regular contributor to The Independent … his “Third leader” column always cheers me up no end) is so transparently good-natured that only the most curmudgeonly could possibly take offence. His delight in the eccentric, the unlikely and the just plain odd is hilarious and life-enhancing.
Travel with him to Fleetwood – the Town that Time Forgot, or to the “Lost Lancashire” of Manchester and Liverpool – untimely ripped from the County Palatine by humourless bureaucrats. Learn to appreciate the beauty that is Rugby League, explore the urban legend that Clint Eastwood is the illegitimate son of Stan Laurel and discover how Carnforth came to be the romantic epicentre of the world.
You’ll never again hear that tired old chestnut, “It’s grim up North” without thinking, “Actually – no, it’s not.”
Mainstream Publishing. Paperback edition: 6 April 2006. 336pp. ISBN-10: 18459603. ISBN-13: 978-1845960377
Oh good review! Hilarious title, great cover. Do people still send hate mail to authors? Hate emails maybe
Grrr, I am a Yorkshire lass on my mum’s side!
Do you want his email address, A?
“Chips?” French fries look so harmless, though I suppose they are loaded with cholestrol.
I’m glad the title is from a strange quote & not as spinster bashing, though it’s rather sad, actually. And an unusual moniker for a travel type book, but definitely intriguing.
I think I once saw a travel guide titled something to the effect of ‘Venice: City of Death’, which didn’t sound very tempting… But this one has got to be one of the best titles ever. And the book itself sounds brilliant, too. Thanks Moira.
I immediately thought they meant childbirth back in the olden days – or gonorrhea or something. Hell, how do you spell that?
Anyway. Zingy review. The book, I have to add, sounds nothing like the title. I wonder how that’ll work for them. And are Mainstream Scottish come to think of it?
Err. Rambling incoherently now. Going to look up gonorrhea…
Nice review. Reminds me of that famous Lancastrian joke:
Q: What’s the best thing to come out of Yorkshire?
A: The M62.
[...] … “Chips?” french fries look so harmless, though I suppose they are loaded with cholestrol. …http://vulpeslibris.wordpress.com/2008/02/03/lancashire-where-women-die-of-love-by-charles-nevin/English RecipesEnglish Recipes – A collection of our favourites from all over the UK … chips [...]