This authoritative new history of place and people lays out the dramatic events that created the north - waves of migration, invasions and battles, and transformative changes wrought on European culture and the global economy.

It could hardly be more topical, given tensions over Brexit, the “red wall” and forces threatening to drive the country apart. Groom sets out to create a proper history of the north of England and the people that identify as northerners.To have a book that condenses such a lengthy and tumultuous period of history into one volume will be welcomed by readers interested in the saga of this region.

There were also little asides that say something about what it is to be Northern that didn't align with my own perceptions of the North and Northern history. I could not imagine reading a book entitled Southerners or could imagine the southerners reading it either. I especially found the chapters on slavery/ cotton manufacturing and the women's movement really interesting as I had not been aware that the North part of England had played such an influential part, first in terms of commerce and then later in abolishing slavery both here and in America. The only other criticism I have is that there was some repeated information towards the end of the book.A few hundred years later, the Benedictine monk Bede is the original polymath as England’s first historian, as well as writing more than sixty works on science, cosmology, biblical commentary and orthography amongst other subjects. The north has exported some of sport's biggest names and defined the sound of generations, from the Beatles to Britpop. Parliament, he says, drew the strongest support from London and the south east whereas Royalist support was strongest in rural areas of northern and western England, Wales and the Welsh marches and west midlands, just like in the EU referendum. Maybe there's a bit of regional bias but personally I thought The Northumbrians: North-East England and it's People by Dan Jackson was better.

Going from the Ice Age to the present day in about 400 pages means you cannot cover anything in depth.It is a celebration of the diverse groups of people who have made the north their home as well as a recognition of the manifold events that have shaped not only the story of this region, but also that of the UK and beyond. Brian Groom didn't pull any punches both showing the problematic issues that the North has been a part of as well as giving praise where praise is due. But overall, I would recommend reading this if you want to understand what makes the North special and interesting and why people like me love living here. Enjoyed the first half of the book a lot, probably as I knew less about the early history of the North.

I thought this book was brilliant from the beginning up to the Industrial Revolution, creating a compelling narrative about the North.I think the structure of the book was not well enough thought out and the writing is not sufficiently effective to compensate for the structural weaknesses which allow for a lot of repetition. Astonishingly, these conflicts account for more than half of the past 2,000 years, if you include the Roman era. A further, minor annoyance is the 'woke' language: things like the capitalisation of black, but not white, when referring to races, and BCE and CE over BC and AD.