Long Road from Jarrow

Dec 21, 2024 7:31 AM

Author:Stuart Maconie

The Sunday Times Bestseller

'A tribute and a rallying call' - Guardian

Three and half weeks. Three hundred miles. I saw roaring arterial highway and silent lanes, candlelit cathedrals and angry men in bad pubs. The Britain of 1936 was a land of beef paste sandwiches and drill halls. Now we are nation of vaping and nail salons, pulled pork and salted caramel.

In the autumn of 1936, some 200 men from the Tyneside town of Jarrow marched 300 miles to London in protest against the destruction of their towns and industries. Precisely 80 years on, Stuart Maconie, walks from north to south retracing the route of the emblematic Jarrow Crusade.

Travelling down the country’s spine, Maconie moves through a land that is, in some ways, very much the same as the England of the 30s with its political turbulence, austerity, north/south divide, food banks and of course, football mania. Yet in other ways, it is completely unrecognisable.

Maconie visits the great cities as well as the sleepy hamlets, quiet lanes and roaring motorways. He meets those with stories to tell and whose voices build a funny, complex and entertaining tale of Britain, then and now.

Reviews

A tribute and a rallying call

—— The Guardian

Maconie’s book is not only a heartfelt tribute to Wilkinson and the marchers, but a reaffirmation of the role of the personal within the political, and a rallying call for anyone stirred by the story of Jarrow

—— The Observer

With yet another conservative government refusing to budge it is hard to avoid Maconie’s conclusion that persuading the uncommitted is as vital as ever

—— New Statesman

The result is this rich, evocative book. Part travelogue, part history, part examination of a nation in flux. It is all a delight ****

—— Mail on Sunday, EVENT Magazine

Footsore in spacetime, hiking simultaneously through memory and landscape, in Long Road from Jarrow Stuart Maconie shadows the defiant, desperate and dignified crusade of 1936 through a modern world where everything has changed except for the austerity, the poverty, the national and global instability, the worrying ascendancy of fascism, and the resilient decency of ordinary people. This is a necessary book; a necessary journey through English identity, and one which you’ll be glad that you embarked on. Now, yes, now is the hour.

—— Alan Moore

An insightful impassioned and witty voyage through Brexit Britain that serves as both travelogue and social commentary

—— Waitrose Weekend

Revelatory ... Unflinchingly charts his personal evolution ... He is not at all easy on himself

—— Keith Duggan , Irish Times

It is pure O'Connell ... Players and coaches from all sports will have the pencil out, finding nuggets

—— Kieran Shannon , Irish Examiner

Absorbing and compelling ... The O'Connell who dominates this book is the one who becomes fixated on the mentality of champions

—— Diarmaid Ferriter , Irish Times

O'Connell has emptied the tank here. ... What has come out ... is a psychological profile that is almost shocking at times in what it reveals about the bloody single-mindedness of the competitive gene

—— Irish Independent

A fantastic book

—— Sean O'Rourke , RTE Radio One

He is a standard-bearer for the country and someone whose principles, moral compass, ideals and heroic virtue make us wish our children would aspire to be someone like him

—— Neil Francis , Sunday Independent

An exceptional book ... tremendously honest

—— Matt Cooper , Today FM

Engaging, honest and insightful. Terrific

—— Ryle Nugent

Honest, fair and devoid of self-pity ... reflects on his life without a shred of hypocrisy or recrimination

—— Paul Rees , Observer

A stunning achievement

—— Irish Mail on Sunday

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 15.0px Calibri; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} Provides many revealing insights into the mind of a born winner

—— Sunday Business Post

Brilliant, bruising

—— Donal Ryan , Sunday Independent

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