UK Book Club discussion

- ENGLAND -
Bedfordshire
Berkshire
Buckinghamshire
Cambridgeshire
Cheshire - Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
Cornwall - When God Was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman
Cumberland - The Sterkarm Handshake by Susan Price
Derbyshire
Devon - Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Dorset
Durham
Essex
Gloucestershire - Junk by Melvin Burgess
Hampshire - My Animals and Other Family by Clare Balding
Herefordshire
Hertfordshire - Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith
Huntingdonshire
Kent - Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Lancashire - Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson
Leicestershire - The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year by Sue Townsend
Lincolnshire
Middlesex - The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter
Norfolk
Northamptonshire
Northumberland - The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
Oxfordshire
Rutland
Shropshire
Somerset
Staffordshire
Suffolk - Missing Persons by Nicci Gerrard
Surrey - Notwithstanding by Louis de Bernières
Sussex - One Moment, One Morning by Sarah Rayner
Warwickshire
Westmorland
Wiltshire - The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Worcestershire
Yorkshire - North Riding
Yorkshire - East Riding
Yorkshire - West Riding - Road to the Dales: The Story of a Yorkshire Lad by Gervase Phinn

WALES -
Anglesey/Sir Fon
Brecknockshire/Sir Frycheiniog
Caernarfonshire/Sir Gaernarfon
Carmarthenshire/Sir Gaerfyrddin
Cardiganshire/Ceredigion - From Aberystwyth with Love by Malcolm Pryce
Denbighshire/Sir Ddinbych
Flintshire/Sir Fflint
Glamorgan/Morgannwg - Submarine by Joe Dunthorne
Merioneth/Meirionnydd
Monmouthshire/Sir Fynwy
Montgomeryshire/Sir Drefaldwyn
Pembrokeshire/Sir Benfro
Radnorshire/Sir Faesyfed - A Dragon to Agincourt by J. Malcolm Pryce

SCOTLAND -
Aberdeenshire
Angus/Forfarshire
Argyllshire
Ayrshire
Banffshire
Berwickshire
Buteshire
Cromartyshire
Caithness
Clackmannanshire
Dumfriesshire
Dunbartonshire/Dumbartonshire
East Lothian/Haddingtonshire
Fife
Inverness-shire - Boom! by Mark Haddon
Kincardineshire
Kinross-shire
Kirkcudbrightshire
Lanarkshire
Midlothian/Edinburghshire - Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin
Morayshire
Nairnshire
Orkney
Peeblesshire
Perthshire
Renfrewshire
Ross-shire
Roxburghshire
Selkirkshire
Shetland
Stirlingshire
Sutherland
West Lothian/Linlithgowshire
Wigtownshire

NORTHERN IRELAND -
Antrim
Armagh
Down
Fermanagh
Londonderry
Tyrone

Sussex - by Sarah Rayner

A book which examines the aftermath of a sudden bereavement - despite seemingly heavy subject matter it is a light, speedy read. Brighton forms a central part or the story, different areas of the town, it's beaches, parks and streets feature heavily.

I've started to read Road to the Dales: The Story of a Yorkshire Lad by Gervase Phinn for this challenge. It's about his childhood in Rochdale - can anyone help me out with which sub-section of Yorkshire that's in?

Think Rochdale is in Lancashire Em.

Ooops, not Rochdale, Rotherham! I meant Rotherham! It begins with R and it up north, how different can they be...

I think that one's in South Yorkshire! Enjoy Gervase Phinn. I have heard him speak and he is so funny. Read A Wayne in a Manger last year and really enjoyed it.

you'll spark the war of the roses again putting rochdale in yorkshire! lol :-)

I know... a bit of a clanger eh! Forgive me people of Yorkshire and Lancashire I know no better, living in Bristol (we speak like farmers and only drive tractors, you know!)

Bet you like the Wurzels as well Em

Ian wrote: "Bet you like the Wurzels as well Em"
Was thinking the same myself!!

EVERYONE likes the Wurzels!!

especially Blackbird! Lol

Bold statement Em

and EVERYONE likes cider!

Not me I'm afraid - always hated the stuff

Yes but you're from the north where you put gravy??? or mushy peas??? on chips - there's clearly something wrong with your taste buds! ;)

I eat mushy peas with everything. Particularly enjoyable cold with salad cream and pepper. Gravy and chips - no not me.....I like my chips double deep fried in beef dripping but no gravy ta muchly........now where's me flat cap and whippet?

Mushy peas... bleaghhh!

Flat cap's on your head, you left the whippet down the pub...

Yorkshire - West Riding (I think!!) Road to the Dales: The Story of a Yorkshire Lad by Gervase Phinn

An enjoyable memoir of his childhood in Rotherham - packed with amusing anecdotes and reflections on his family life and education.

According to Wikki Rotherham is in South! (which is good really because there are more books in West!)

But there isn't a South Riding is there??! I think it's near Sheffield so went for West Riding but if anyone knows for sure, my geography has really let me down here!

Sorry Em - you are quite right - it is in South Yorkshire, not South Riding. Thinking about the novel there!!! And I lived in the West Riding!! Should know better - would think West is your best option (unless of course anyone knows better!)

Go with West Em - suspect South Riding was never created because it had the Yorkshire swear word "south" in it. I'm amazed South Yorkshire is allowed......they've obviously mellowed in god's own county.

For Hertfordshire, I've read by Seth Grahame-Smith which takes the original and melds the style to include plagues of zombies, ninja's and much double-entendre concerning "balls". Make of that what you will!!

Oxfordshire - Inspector Morse by Colin Dexter

I'm currently reading which I think can count for Kent, I know Pip goes to London as a young man but his childhood etc is set in marshlands of coastal Kent.

I've just finished reading The Bones of Avalon byPhil Rickman. Set in Glastonbury therefore an excellent read for Somerset!
ok...some of it is set in London...but the main focus of the story is in Glastonbury.

oh and as a point of contention (no malice), just reading through the last few posts....I'm from South Yorkshire.............

I thought I would be reading Phil Rickman for Shropshire but discovered Sarah Rayne Property of A Lady, I see you had one of hers for Sussex. I have ordered another for Norfolk. Property of a Lady is very spooky!! Really enjoying it - a new author to me. Did you enjoy the one you read?

I have The Bones of Avalon on my Kindle for this challenge, glad you think it's good - I'd not heard of it before but it sounded interesting.

So... you can be my go to person on geographical queries for Yorkshire (so sorry I mentioned that other county where Rotherham isn't.) Did I put it in the "right" Riding??!

It's in South Yorkshire, and you were right it is near Sheffield. I'm happy to be the go to person for Yorkshire based queries. I'm not offended, I'm not a geographical wizard either, and don't know where every town is in the UK!

The Bones of Avalon was very interesting, a bit strange, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Sue wrote: "I thought I would be reading Phil Rickman for Shropshire but discovered Sarah Rayne Property of A Lady, I see you had one of hers for Sussex. I have ordered another..."

I did enjoy it, quite a light read (although covers serious themes) I think I posted a review at the time. I'll look out for what you think of her other books...

I've just finished by Kazuo Ishiguro - fantastic book, I loved it. It's a good one for British Counties as it concerns a tour of the West Country which takes in Wiltshire, Somerset, Devon, Cornwall and Dorset although, a good deal of the book is spent reflecting on events of the past at Darlington Hall in Oxfordshire.

On balance over a third is entitled Salisbury, Wiltshire so I think I'll attribute it to there.

I think Gervaise Phin's books are set in North Yorkshire. Once Removed is definitely West Yorkshire.Once Removed

Thomas Hardy is a good place to look for Dorset-based novels, though the place names are usually altered.

I've read a fair bit of Christopher Brookmyre's stuff, which covers Glasgow and Edinburgh for me. The Wimbledon Poisoner is London really, but technically I think Wimbledon is in Surrey. If not then about half of The Throwback is set in that county.

Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor roves between North Devon and Somerset.

Most of my own stories are set in unspecified towns - that had never really occurred to me before!

Thanks for the suggestions, I do generally enjoy Thomas Hardy so Tess is a distinct possibility for Dorset.

It's surprising how many books are in an unspecified place - not helpful for this particular challenge but to be honest, if I ever complete this challenge it'll be a large part luck and chance, I'm not THAT focused!

I'm pretty clear in my own head where each of my stories are set (anyone from my home town will recognise the geography of The Late Romantics), but the more I think about it, the more I realise I almost never make it explicit.

Inadvertantly visiting Surrey! Picked up by Louis de Bernières from the library this week and it turns out to be a fictional village based on where he grew up in Wormley, Surrey. Mentions Godalming and Guildford as being nearby so once step further along with the challenge.

You've missed out Borsetshire!

Ha! So I have...

I'm reading From Aberystwyth with Love by Malcolm Pryce which is for Cardiganshire/Ceredigion I think. I will check that, we've already established my geography isn't all it could be!

Bit strange, starting with 5th in a series, I think it might have been daily deal on Kindle Store at some point. I like it so far - zany, funny.

Reading by Jeanette Winterson which is set in her home town of Accrington, Lancashire.

Loved that one Em!

I was trying to remember who in the group had read this book.! It is heartbreaking to imagine a childhood like this, amazing the grit she must have had to survive it.

Started by Joe Dunthorne which is set in Swansea, Glamorgan.

For Suffolk I've read Missing Persons by Nicci Gerrard, a bit fortuitous as just happens to be my book group choice this month.

One more for this challenge Junk by Melvin Burgess
which is set in Bristol (although I'm from Bristol and it isn't in Gloucestershire now!)

Depends which part of Bristol Em!!

This book is based in the inner city. I guess some of Bristols suburbs are now South Gloucestershire but that's separate again from Gloucestershire which is a few miles further up the M5. I expect that once it was one and the same, just not within my living memory!

I don't know if you've chosen Derbyshire but via my book group I recently read Year of wonders by Geraldine Brooks which was a fictionalised account of the village of Eyam which closes itself off during the plague, it was a pretty good read!