Yorkshire: A lyrical history of England's greatest county

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DI Nathaniel Caslin is in conflict with his inner demons. His career is resurgent, but the greater battle, that with his addiction, is still raging...and he is losing.

Born to a farming family in Rudston, East Yorkshire, Holtby was a prolific journalist. Holtby’s most important book was South Riding, published posthumously in 1936. The book is set in the fictional South Riding of Yorkshire. The first English poet was a Yorkshire local. The now ruined Whitby Abbey was established in 657 by Abbess Hilda. From about 670AD it was the home of Caedmon, an Anglo-Saxon herdsman and the first English poet. Caedmon put into English passages from the Scriptures, and wrote the devotional Hymn to Creation. Andrew Marvell (1621 – 1678) Simon Armitage was born in Huddersfield, West Riding of Yorkshire, and grew up in the village of Marsden, where his family still live. Armitage was appointed Poet Laureate on 10 May 2019. He is professor of poetry at the University of Leeds and succeeded Geoffrey Hill as Oxford Professor of Poetry when he was elected to the four-year part-time appointment from 2015 to 2019. Our adopted poets… Philip Larkin (1922 – 1985) I bought Haytime in the Yorkshire Dales edited by Don Gamble & Tanya St. Pierre some time ago and still love to dip into the pictures and descriptions of our wonderful flower-rich hay meadows. It covers their biodiversity, traditional farming methods and how they’ve inspired creative people for generations.Peace dedicated 1977 “to the victims of the crimes attributed to the Yorkshire Ripper, and to their families … [and] to the men and women who tried to stop those crimes”, while stressing that “this book remains a work of fiction”. Peace plays with the facts in his quartet: Sutcliffe is renamed Peter Williams, and the victims’ names are also changed, with the details of their lives and deaths altered too. An abandoned car and a desperate call to the police lead Caslin into the heart of two families where secrets and lies are a way of life. What links the fate of an MP's granddaughter and that of a recovering drug addict working in the sex trade? During the thirty years he spent in Hull, Larkin produced a significant body of poetry. In 2003, almost two decades after his death and despite controversy about his personal life and opinions, Larkin was chosen as “the nation’s best-loved poet” in a survey by the Poetry Book Society, and in 2008 The Times named Larkin as the greatest British post-war writer. Sylvia Plath (1932 – 1963) Born in Barnsley and now living in Huddersfield, Joanne was a teacher for 15 years, during which time she published novels including…

As the years passed and the Ripper’s tally of victims edged upwards and began to embrace women other than sex workers – and with the police seemingly at sea – David lost his initial excitement and began to fear for his mother’s life, begging her not to leave the house. “My sister used to say her prayers out loud every night, and she would always say, ‘Dear God, please don’t let the Ripper kill my mum,’” Peace told the Guardian in 2001. “Because of the way she was, she’d have to say it 10 times. If she lost count, she’d have to start again. It did my head in.” With his keen ear for the absurd and sharp eye for the ludicrous, Phinn has delighted audiences with tales of his experiences as a school inspector and is probably best known for his autobiographical novels: The Dales Series, which includes:Later on, in pursuit of the same man, another cop threatens to rape a woman he encounters so that she will stay out of the way of the arrest. There are no rebukes from an upright chief superintendent. Born in York, Mike Pannett is an author of novels which recount his experience as a rural beat officer in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire.

Sometimes the world feels like a fierce, uncomfortable place. We're bombarded with stories of political unrest, constant technological change, and unpleasant scandals. The temptation to retreat from all this, to look for a better world is strong. Space exploration is one option. Burying your head in a good book is infinitely easier. On leaving grammar school Priestley worked in the wool trade of his native city of Bradford, but had ambitions to become a writer. He was to draw on memories of Yorkshire in many of the works he wrote after he had moved south. David Peace knows it was impossible to avoid hearing the word “Ripper” being shouted or whispered in West Yorkshire at that time: he was there. Peace was born in 1967 and grew up in Ossett, near Dewsbury. Haunted by the ghosts of the past, Caslin is pushed to his limits. Will this case break him or be his path to redemption?

With the net tightening, the level of threat increases. Will Caslin, along with those closest to him, be the last victims of a forgotten conflict?

A poet, translator and playwright from Beeston in Leeds, Tony Harrison adapted the well known English Medieval Mystery Plays, performed in York and Wakefield. He has also penned many poems and drama for film and television. Simon Armitage (1963 – ) Peace’s readers will note that the television series has an infinitesimally happier ending than the books do. The scriptwriter Tony Grisoni explained: “It was an emotional reaction … to two and a half years of being in this inferno that David Peace had constructed. David doesn’t save anyone. Whereas I needed to.”Anne was the youngest of the sisters, she died while on holiday to Scarborough where she is buried. She published under the name Acton Bell, her works include…