Welcome to Grin Up North, an affectionate homage to the Yorkshire I was born and bred in and the Lancashire I grew up in.
I left the north for work over 30 years ago but I have never stopped missing it, the amazing countryside, the outstanding pies, the truly wonderful beer but most of all the people.
Tykes and Lancastrians have their own way with language which is made all the more fascinating by the richness of accents and dialects. From Barnsley to Accrington, Blackpool to Scarborough the people from the white and red rose counties have their own way of giving their view of the world.
As someone who worked as a newspaper reporter in Lancashire for 10 years and as a youth as a bar man in a village pub I absorbed thousands of characters and conversations (For two of my favourites see the Great Crisp Conversation and Thall Rue’t Day featured on the home page) and wallowed in the bluntness, the mispronunciations, the outrage, the passion for the mundane – and discussing it at length, and of course the rants. I also loved the warmth, the generosity (don’t believe what you hear about Yorkshiremen) and the wicked, arid, sense of humour.
It was on a visit to my brother Len, having spent an hour in a pub listening to the various conversations that I began falling into various characters from either side of the Pennines and that was how “The Northerns” were born.
Whenever I felt the need to revisit my roots (pretty regularly to be honest) I would record something on my Smart phone and send it to him.
That began in 2017 and more than 300 “Northerns” later I thought it might be fun to share them with a wider audience.
They are not comedy sketches (although they do make Len and me laugh quite a bit) – they are just observations about the various character types I have encountered over the years and some of the conversations I have overheard.
Some are just snippets of the results of shameless eavesdropping, some are exaggerations, some are total fabrications whilst staying faithful to the characters involved.
I should warn you there is some strong language and there is a distinct lack of political correctness at times so if you are easily offended you might want to make your excuses and leave.
Any similarity to persons living or dead is entirely intentional.