Quite right too...

Another mini-post: did you see that report in this week's snow mayhem white hell journalism, that Tweets in the North of England had a large share of words such as 'sledge' and 'snowman', while those in the South were more on the lines of 'stuck', 'frozen', 'gridlocked'?

This is germane to the thesis of True North, and I will try to get it in to the reprint. Although, as one of my sons suggested to me today before flying off to Mexico City (I wish...), books may become indefinite now that we have the internet. Via means such as this blog, they may just ramble on and on and on...



I don't like not having an illustration in a post, so here is one of girls from Harrogate Ladies College, my Mum's alma mater, at a time when it was producing the sort of Northerners who carried on cheerfully through the Depression, the Second World War and the winter of 1947, which makes our current cold snap look a picnic. I'm not a fan of modern independent schools because they are so seldom independent-minded; but HCL was then, and many women of that generation have a notable cast of mind. If you or your Mum or Gran are in the picture, do let me (and the world) know.

Talking of which, two daughters of retired dockers in one of the fantastic pictures by my former Guardian colleague Denis Thorpe in True North have been in touch, very pleased to see their Dads, who also look like redoubtable types. You'll have to buy or borrow the book to see that one.