Rating: 5/5
Review:
Entertaining, well informed and very insightful
I do like Stuart Maconie's books. He is a very intelligent, thoughtful
observer, he always has interesting things to say about what he observes, he's
often very funny and he's always a pleasure to read.
In this book, Maconie retraces the route of the Jarrow
Crusade, largely sticking to the original route the marchers followed on each
day, exactly 80 years later. The result
is a thoughtful, entertaining and very informative look at exactly what
happened in 1936, and at the Britain
he finds in 2016. Maconie is very, very
good at just talking to people; he is genuinely interested in them so they tend
to open up to him. He has a definite
political stance and a firm view on Brexit, for example, but is keen also to
try to understand those who disagree with him.
He also has a delightful willingness to be pleased with what he finds;
he will criticise where appropriate, but he approaches places and people in a
spirit of looking for things to like about them which is both refreshing and
often revealing about his subjects.
Like so many people I had only a vague notion of the Jarrow
Crusade: when it was, who took part, the reception it got and so on. Maconie has put all that right while never
being over-earnest about it and his humanity and wit are always apparent. He has also given me an entertaining and very
interesting picture of attitudes in parts of Britain
today.
Most of all, this is a great read. Don't be put off by the apparently worthy and
solemn subject matter; it is honest about the conditions of the marchers and
penetrating about political parallels in Britain today, but it's funny,
likeable, very readable and, in its way, rather gripping. Very warmly recommended.
(I received an ARC via Netgalley.)
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