Back Up North

After a decade overseas, Ally Shepherd got stuck in the Northwest of England amid 2020’s pandemic chaos.She promptly became a born-again Northerner and, probably annoyingly, wanted to tell the world.Documenting her journey to understand herself through the region in which she grew up, she explores its pressing questions, such as: ?Is there still a North/South divide?? Was she descended from a Pendle witch? ? Why does Liverpool have a slavery museum? ? What’s with Scouse and Geordie accents? ? Where are Northern women’s stories in TV, film, and literature? ? And is it okay to eat chips, cheese and gravy? (Spoiler: The answer to the last question is ‘yes’).Drawing on history, politics, pop culture, and folklore – as well as a childhood in Cheshire, family stories from Lancashire, and an education in Yorkshire – Back Up North explores the region’s diverse legacy of food, music, literature, dialect, social change and superstition.Give it a read, pet. Tha might learn summat..