A REVIEW OF CELEBRATED AUTHOR’S ‘YORKSHIRE NOSTALGIA EVENING’ AT RICHMOND TOWN HALL.

Earlier this summer, Richmond Sixth Form College student Benedict Simpson-Alexander wrote a blog introducing the two authors Andrew Martin and Matson Taylor and their recent books – ‘Yorkshire: There and Back’ and ‘All About Evie’. The theme linking the authors and their books is the county of Yorkshire. Both are Yorkshire born and bred and the evening of conversation hosted by the Richmond Walking and Book Festival promised to be a fascinating event.

Benedict attended the event recently and takes up the story…

Despite Matson Taylor being unable to attend as a result of having COVID-19, Andrew Martin’s presence brought a warm air to Richmond Town Hall on an overcast September evening. With exciting discussions about his upbringing, his novels and, most importantly, Yorkshire, Martin filled the room with a fitting sense of nostalgia. Discussing his beginnings, Martin explained how his career in law led him to pursue his passion for writing. He highlighted that his 30 year commitment offer ironically ‘felt like a prison sentence itself’ and thus, a writer was born… or rather, realised.

When asked if he believed that Yorkshire had changed since his childhood in the sixties and seventies, Martin described it as a question that was ‘hard to answer’. However, Martin’s discussion of the loss of sense of purpose was most intriguing. In post-industrial Yorkshire, it is ‘no longer evident what a town or city does’. With his father having worked for the North Eastern Region of British Railways in York, the once dubbed ‘chocolate city’, the industrial powerhouses of the North had a prominent influence on Martin, something that is evident in his writing, particularly his Jim Stringer novel series.

Amid a conversation filled with the intricacies of all that is Yorkshire, Martin provided an insightful response to my question on how we can ensure the preservation of Yorkshire nostalgia. Again, regarding it as a tough question, his response developed from ‘offering a blank and confused look’ to once more the idea that ‘Yorkshire is less and less like (itself) each day’, and the most important thing to be done is to ‘highlight that it is in fact happening’. With the influence of globalisation and American culture and language impacting on British and Yorkshire tradition each and every day, Martin’s comments provide a veritable tone to such an argument.

With a revitalised sense of pride for the county I live in, I now wonder what I could do to preserve all that is quintessentially ‘Yorkshire’. And for that, Andrew Martin advises to ‘Read books by people like me!’

Thank you to Benedict for taking the time and effort to write the review. We wish him all the best as he continues into his final year of studies at Richmond Sixth Form College, including his roles as Deputy Head Student and exceptional middle distance athlete!