All Points North by Simon Armitage
In the eyes of Simon Armitage the North is not Manchester or Newcastle or the Lake District but that area of West Yorkshire where the M1 intersects the M62: the country of Jarvis Cocker and Peter Sutcliffe, Geoffrey Boycott and Bernard Ingham. In a series of incredibly funny and perceptive pieces that are above all reminiscent of Alan Bennett, he conveys the spirit of the place through wonderful narratives: a day-out in Bridlington with the local dramatic society, tyre-trading on the local farms, a Saturday-night out in Leeds and so on.