The Book
This 17-part book features the works from These Northern Types alongside written contributions from some of the region’s leading talents, including 2018 Walter Scott Prize winning author, journalist and poet Benjamin Myers, and musician Boff Whalley. The 17 pieces of the book feautre a wide range of foils and print finishing techniques and are housed in a beautiful black box with black foil and die cut slit.
The book is kindly supported by both Fedrigoni Papers and Pressision.
“Beautiful to look at yet uncompromising and direct… These Northern Types offers a taste of the north that is unparalleled since someone in Wigan decided to put a meat and potato pie between a barn cake. …an artefact as much as a text; it comprises 17 individually-bound books, collected together, and created by some of the most interesting thinkers in the north today.” — The Independent
“Ambitious, expansive, and inventive… These Northern Types feels like an important sociological project… No one project can ever adequately summarise the state of a nation, but These Northern Types is as good an attempt as you’ll see all year.” — It’s Nice That
“Ambitious in the best sense of the word, These Northern Types is nothing less than a frequently discursive disquisition on the nature of Northernness as unapologetically contrary as the North itself.” — Northern Soul
Where to Buy
Visit: www.split.co.uk/shop or one of our lovely stockists:
The Book Case in Hebden Bridge
Chirpy in Chapel Allerton
Colours May Vary on Quarry Hill in Leeds
Forum Books in Corbridge
Fred Aldous in Leeds and Manchester
The Gallery in Masham
Keel Row Books in Newcastle
RADSTUDIO! in Saltaire
Salt’s Mill Book Shop in Saltaire
Sunny Bank Mills in Farsley
Village in Leeds City Centre
Foyles (online)
The Writers
The writers included in the book are:
BENJAMIN MYERS – an award-winning author, journalist and poet. His books include Under The Rock (2018), The Gallows Pole (2017), Beastings (2014) and Pig Iron (2012). He lives in the Upper Calder Valley, West Yorkshire. For These Northern Types he’ll be writing on the Beautiful Wild Sounds of the north.
BOFF WHALLEY – musician and writer, who is perhaps best known for being the former lead guitarist for the anarcho-punk and folk band Chumbawamba. He is now a playwright and the founder of Commoners Choir who released their first album in March 2017. Also a fell runner, Boff has written for These Northern Types on our Northern Grit and its origins.
SUZY PRINCE – A writer, editor and lecturer, Suzy Prince’s latest book, The Graphic Art of the Underground was recently published by Bloomsbury. Previously she was the founder and editor of the internationally-distributed arts magazine Nude, as well as the co-proprietor of the renowned gallery The Last Chance Saloon in Waterloo, London. Suzy’s writing for These Northern Types explores the issue of commonly-held prejudices about northern and regional dialects, especially for women.
DANIEL CHAPMAN – Writer & editor of The Square Ball – an award winning football fanzine, and commissioned to write a new official history of Leeds United. Daniel’s piece covers the English Identity, perceptions of the English working class, racism and football through the lens of a Leeds fan.
ANTONY DUNN – Poet and Dramatist Antony Dunn is both a contributor and an editor for These Northern Types. Previous winner of the Newdigate Prize for poetry, he was Poet in Residence at the University of York for 2006, for the Ilkley Literature Festival in 2010 and received a Society of Authors Eric Gregory Award. His work also involves running workshops and engagement projects across the country, as well as curating and organising poetry festivals. His poetry accompanies a poignant interview with a local elderly resident, entitled We Lose Bits of Ourselves.
DR KATY WRIGHT – is an academic and lecturer in Sociology and Social Policy at Leeds University’s School of Sociology & Social Policy and a member of the Bauman Institute. In the book, she deftly explores the question “Does it matter where we’re from anymore?”.
PHIL KIRBY – a writer and the editor of Leeds blog Culture Vulture. He lends his dry wit to These Northern Types in a gravy-ladened visit to his local chip shops.
NESTOR MATTHEWS – A writer and touring musician, Nestor is best know as the drummer from indie bands Magic Mountain, Menace Beach and Sky Larkin. For These Northern Types, Nestor takes us on a deeply personal exploration of his relationship with the clichés of Northern Identity in an attempt to reconcile an aversion to categorisation with a desire for belonging.
CHRIS O’CONNOR – is a theatre writer for Red Ladder Theatre Company and Freedom Studios (The Life & Soul; Marching on Embers). To These Northern Types, he brings his experience of weaving dramatic tension to a two sided argument about class, snobbery, pretension and assumption.
JACK SIMPSON – Currently studying for a PhD in Philosophy, Jack is the founder of The State of the Arts – an arts and culture blog with a political edge – owner of Eiger Studios and co-founder of Hyde Park Book Club. For These Northern Types he examines the changing nature of work in the region, its impact on our identity, and asks what the future might hold.
LYDIA CATTERALL – an artist & researcher who aims to reveal, support and champion the creative brains transforming the make-up of where we live. Her writing for These Northern Types offers a reflection on our ability to make do and mend in the North and what we have to gain, not lose, by making do.
BENJAMIN WEBSTER – Winner of the Northern Writing Award for fiction in 2016, his latest book Hometown Tales: Lancashire is due to be released this year. For These Northern Types, Ben sends us a Greeting From Nowhere – a portrait of an overlooked northern seaside town.
HELEN SHAY & BEE SMITH – Helen and Bee have lent their words to the People Powered Press as part of the project. Helen met her longtime collaborator Bee 20 years ago; bonding through Chapel Allerton’s all female poetry performance group Daughters of Lilith, they conversed poetically in their co-collection Binary Star and continue to do so since Bee defected to Ireland.
MIKE REEVE (University of Hull) & ANDREW McTOMINEY (Leeds Beckett): Northern Identities Research Network –
The Northern Identities Research Network (NIRN) was founded in September 2017, following conferences in Leeds and Hull on history, heritage and identities in the north. Both doctoral researchers, Mike and Andrew have edited a special edition of the International Journal of Regional and Local History on the themes of the conference and are currently planning another publication. Their contribution to These Northern Types focuses on other parts of the world and the identities of those living in the other half of their country to the centres of power, finance, media, culture and intellectualism.
The book is available in our shop here.