The Express Columns Volume One
Ian Clayton promotes the idea that ‘a sense of place’ is not just about bricks and mortar, rather it’s in the people and the stories we tell each other. We are what we do, what we eat and wear, the places we go to enjoy ourselves, the way we share our history and what we have in common.
Right Up Your Street brings together a selection of weekly columns Ian has written for his local paper, the Pontefract and Castleford Express. This fascinating compendium of real stories thrives on the term ‘local’; it is about ‘round here’ in all its eccentric, bewildering and historical glory, putting pride right back into place and the local firmly amongst the global.
‘Ian Clayton has an unshakeable belief in the power of stories to bring people together, coming as he does from that great tradition of storytellers that includes the likes of Stan Barstow, Alan Sillitoe and, his hero, Barry Hines.’ – Chris Bond, Yorkshire Post
‘Ian Clayton is a brilliant columnist. Combining just the right amount of local knowledge and global awareness, Right Up Your Street is a wonder of Yorkshire vernacular, dying expressions and cosy pubs. Folks who have read Clayton’s Bringing It All Back Home, which delights in making the connections, tracing the routes and finding the maps which connect us all, will find plenty to love here.’ – Laurie Harvey, Articulated
‘Simultaneously amusing and charming, this has to be one of the most appropriate and readable of books on local community in the UK I’ve read in a long, long time.’ – David Marx
Ian Clayton 