Stuart Maconie

"{U2018}These were the days that made us, and these are the day trips to find them. Should we do a flask? And are you sure you{u2019}ll be warm enough in that coat?{u2019} In Hope and Glory Stuart Maconie goes in search of the places, people and events that have shaped modern Britain. Starting with the death of Queen Victoria, to the Battle of the Somme and the General Strike, and on to the docking of the Empire Windrush and Bobby Moore raising the Jules Rimet trophy, he chooses a defining moment in our nation{u2019}s story from each decade of the last century and explores its legacy today. Some were glorious days, some were tragic, or even shameful, but each has played its part in making us who we are as a nation. From pop stars to politicians, Suffragettes to punks, this is a journey around Britain in search of who we are."--Publisher's description.

Sees World War II through the eyes of a nine-year-old boy, growing up in London during the blitz, stuck at home with mom and his bratty sisters while dad is off fighting.

The Sunday Times bestselling author of Pies and Prejudice goes in search of middle EnglandEveryone talks about 'Middle England'. Sometimes they mean something bad, like a lynch mob of Daily Mail readers, and sometimes they mean something good, like a pint of ale in a sleepy Cotswold village in summer twilight. But just where and what is Middle England? Stuart Maconie didn't know either, so he packed his Thermos and sandwiches and set off to find out... Is Middle England about tradition and decency or closed minds and bigotry? Is it maypoles and evensong, or flooded market towns and binge drinkers in the park. Stands the church clock still at ten to three, and is there honey still for tea? And is Slough really as bad as Ricky Gervais and John Betjeman make out? Does Middle England hark all the way back to Arthurian legend and Merrie England, or is it a modern concept borne of Top Gear and Princess Diana? From Shakespeare to JK Rowling, Vaughan Williams to Craig David, William Morris to B&Q, Morte D'Arthur to Midsomer Murders, Stuart Maconie leads the expedition, with plenty of stop-offs for tea and pastries, to discover the truth.

A hilarious journey in search of the real North, northerners and northernness, from the bestselling author of Cider With RoadiesA Northerner in exile, Stuart Maconie goes on a journey in search of the North, attempting to discover where the cliches end and the truth begins. He travels from Wigan Pier to Blackpool Tower and Newcastle's Bigg Market to the Lake District to find his own Northern Soul, encountering along the way an exotic cast of chippy Scousers, pie-eating woollybacks, topless Geordies, mad-for-it Mancs, Yorkshire nationalists and brothers in southern exile.