Seeing as Autumn is the perfect time for curling up with a good book by the fire, as the longer nights have drawn in, I decided to take a look at some of the homegrown literary talent from the North. So, if you want to read some Lancastrian voices, check out the authors I’ve highlighted below – some are modern, others very much not, and there’s quite the range of genres represented, so whatever floats your literary boat, there should be something for you to enjoy!

(Some of these authors were born in areas that are now outside of Lancashire due to new county creations in the 1970s, but they were Lancashire when they were born, so I’m counting it!).

Note – if you choose to purchase anything by these authors, could I please request that you try and support either local and independent bookshops, or high street retailers, rather than that online behemoth that shall not be named. Let’s try and keep the British bookshop alive!

Joe Abercrombie

Joe Abercrombie is a bestselling author of fantasy books and was born in Lancaster. His first trilogy The First Law is an introduction to an epic fantasy world on the brink of an Industrial Revolution, but also a world at war. The world created by Abercrombie is full of magic, lore, demons, and incredible adventure. There are nine novels set in The First Law universe (split into two trilogies and one omnibus of three standalone novels), with more purported to be on the way. Definitely one I’m going to be adding to my reading list!

Josephine Cox

Josephine Cox was born in Blackburn, Lancashire, and published novels under her full name, Jo Cox, and also the name of her mother Jane Brindle. She is often listed in the top three “most borrowed” books by the UK Public Lending Rights figures (i.e. when people go to libraries, they’re often picking Jo Cox, which is pretty cool!).

Often set in the Northern towns and areas in which she grew up, Jo’s books are full of Northern warmth and humour, as well as reflecting some of the struggles that these industrial towns have experienced throughout the twentieth/twenty-first century. Her books have human stories at the heart, with romance, family dynamics, and friendship woven throughout. A few of her most popular titles are Don’t Cry Alone, A Daughter’s Return, and More Than Riches. Jo published over 50 books in her lifetime, before passing away at the age of 82 in 2020.

Willy Russell

Yes, that Willy Russell. Famous playwright and author, Willy Russell was born in Whiston, Lancashire. I’ve actually acted in a Russell play before, Our Day Out, and thought he was a fantastic playwright with a wonderful grip on language and the theatre space.

His works, including Educating Rita and Blood Brothers, are firmly lodged in the canon of “need-to-know” plays. Educating Rita was commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1980 and starred Julie Walters and Mark Kingston. It went on to be made into a beloved film in 1983 with Julie Walters and Michael Caine in the lead roles.

Jeanette Winterson

Jeanette Winterson was born in Manchester in 1959. Probably most well known for her semi-autobiographical novel Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit of growing up as Lesbian in a Pentecostal community, and rebelling against the conventions that she had been told to live by. By 16 Winterson had left home, and applied to work at Pandora Press, a feminist imprint that published Oranges Are…, which went on to win the Whitbread Prize for debut novel.

Alongside many other works, she has also written a short story The Daylight Gate, published in 2012, about the Pendle Witch Trials which took place in Lancaster. The novella was published to coincide with the four hundredth anniversary of the trials.

Elizabeth Gaskell

Okay, this one is a bit of a curve ball – Elizabeth Gaskell wasn’t born in Lancashire, shock horror! – the reason she is included in this list is that she wrote several of her extremely well known novels whilst residing in the village of Silverdale, Lancashire. She stayed in a tower folly that I have actually stayed in for a short break (you used to be able to find the tower for holiday rent, as it has since changed owners, I don’t know if this possible anymore). If you would like to see where she wrote North and South and parts of Cranford, just take a wander down towards Jack Scout in Silverdale, past the Wolf House Gallery, and you will see what looks like a medieval tower in a private garden. It’s not medieval, and was built in the early Victorian period, but was utilised by Gaskell when she wrote. It’s in a beautiful situation, and you can climb to the top and onto the terrace, for panoramic views across Morecambe Bay and towards the Lake District. You can see why Gaskell chose it as a bolthole to write!

The novels themselves are an intimate look at “ordinary” life during the Victorian period, with a lot of focus on family dynamics, the struggles/lives of women in a world dominated by men, as well as stark looks at poverty and the lives of those who lived it during the nineteenth century.

Several of her novels including Wives and Daughters, Cranford, and North and South, have been adapted for television by the BBC.

I’ll be checking out authors from the other Northern counties I like to explore in posts yet to come!