Humour
Words from Hyem
PRE-ORDER NOW – PUBLICATION DATE FRIDAY 9 OCTOBER
Words from Hyem – The Life and Rhymes of Richard Oliver Heslop
by Andy Bogle and Tony Hannan
Historian, author, songwriter, poet, businessman, humourist, lexicologist, Liberal man-about-town and – from 1914 to 1916 – president of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne, along with much else besides, Oliver Heslop is the Toon’s forgotten champion. The man responsible for the region’s first nationally recognised dialect dictionary Northumberland Words – prior to then published weekly in the Evening Chronicle – was a celebrity of his day, a champion of the region, years ahead of his time. Yet sadly, since his demise, his astonishing contribution has been all but overlooked. This book puts that right.
And in fact, Words from Hyem has its own sad tale to tell. Originally, it had one single author, South Shields-born Andy Bogle, latterly resident in the USA, but drawn back frequently to County Durham and Northumberland and his second residence in Hexham. Now it has a couple. Yorkshireman and ‘adopted Geordie’ Tony Hannan has in-laws galore in South Shields, so needed little persuasion to step into the breach when Andy passed away in August 2023. In short, this is a biography like no other.
The Book of Bailey Dog
Tommy Cannon – This Is Me
PUBLISHED 24 OCTOBER 2025 – PRE-ORDER NOW
By Tommy Cannon
with a Foreword by Robbie Williams
Jake Thackray – The Unsung Writer
Edited by Paul Thompson
“I would rather make people laugh, than make them do anything else…”
Hilarious, irreverent, poignant, fanciful, quirky, imaginative, original, musical. Jake Thackray was a storytelling genius who loved using words to entertain, move, surprise and provoke. While his extraordinary songs are rightly celebrated, they were not the beginning of his life as a wordsmith, nor the end. Jake Thackray – The Unsung Writer is a chance to explore Jake’s other writings: love poetry; an experimental short story; his charming script for a school musical; amusing pen portraits; his first published work; tall tales crafted for his concerts; and his acclaimed, colourful columns for the ‘Yorkshire Post’ and ‘Catholic Herald’. This entertaining collection provides fresh insights into Jake’s creativity and the development of his distinctive voice.
Paul Thompson is also the co-author of critically-acclaimed biography Beware of the Bull – The Enigmatic Genius of Jake Thackray
Back Up North
by Ally Shepherd
After a decade overseas, Ally Shepherd got stuck in the Northwest of England amid 2020’s pandemic chaos. She promptly became a born-again Northerner and, probably annoyingly, wanted to tell the world.
Documenting her journey to understand herself through the region in which she grew up, she explores its pressing questions, such as: Is there still a North/South divide? Was she descended from a Pendle witch? Why does Liverpool have a slavery museum? What’s with Scouse and Geordie accents? Where are Northern women’s stories in TV, film, and literature? And is it okay to eat chips, cheese and gravy? (Spoiler: The answer to the last question is ‘yes’).
Drawing on history, politics, pop culture, and folklore – as well as a childhood in Cheshire, family stories from Lancashire, and an education in Yorkshire – Back Up North explores the region’s diverse legacy of food, music, literature, dialect, social change and superstition. Give it a read, pet. Tha might learn summat.
