An enjoyable, wryly humorous book following in a Bill Bryson-like vein. It doesn't however have a great deal of depth to it.

This felt quite an emotional journey for me in many respects, as my father was a Durham man born in 1913 and a Miner from the age of 13. Even back in 1936 the walk of 200 men from Jarrow to Downing Street, caused so many different reactions every step of the way. From welcoming brass bands, cinema tickets, new clothing and full bellies for the men to places that only offered a concrete floor to sleep on in the cold nights of late October. Snippets of stories have been added on and some of the journey sketchy but the core of this historical event still lives on.
Stuart Maconie took it on himself to retrace the steps of this journey on the same calendar dates as they had, 80 years after these men, calling in staying at the same places. Maconie made comparisons to the then and now of the cities, towns and villages that he went through. He spoke to residents about what they knew and even managed to track down some that saw and even spoke to the men.
I was fascinated with this story, the then and now versions that compared how the places had changed and the reception that he got from locals and how he thought the march would be received in each area now. There were even a few that came out and met him on the route including a bunch of college students taking him under their wing, well for an afternoon with them asking questions.
I knew so many of the places, where I have lived, shopped and have family which at times made me proud of the local people to quite shocked. I feel really quite privileged to have shared Stuart Maconie's journey, which made me feel very humble. I congratulate this author for his undertaking this epic journey and his historical comparisons to his own experiences. Long live courageous and proud men!
I originally received this e-book from NetGalley which I have reviewed honestly.

Eighty-two years ago around 200 men set off from the Tyneside town of Jarrow to march to London. The reason for this was to protest at the closure of Palmer's shipyard that had affected everyone's livelihoods in the town. Calling themselves crusaders, they were carrying a petition to the government of day asking for a new industry to be created in the town. Back in the 1930's it was nothing like it was today, the world was in a global depression, there was the rise of right-wing political interests, a stark north/south divide, food banks and indifference from the political elite; err hang on…

It is through modern England that Stuart Maconie wants to retrace the march that the Jarrow Crusaders followed stopping in the cities that they did, seeking the places that supported them with food and provisions, seeing how many people know of anything about their story and to take the pulse of a just post-Brexit Britain. Whilst some things remain the same, there is a lot that has changed in the UK in that short period of time; gone are the big industries, mines and manual jobs that the north relied on and in their place are service jobs, disillusionment and high unemployment.

Maconie is one of those guys who can talk to almost anyone and in this book he does, from waiters to mums, healthy debates in pubs and even gets invited to an event with the leader of the opposition. He is prepared to say it how it is, how even now the north still is massively underfunded compared to the south-east of the country, how the London bubble distorts the economy and how there is much more community spirit the further from London you get. As usual, he writes with deft humour and his keen eyes observe the subtleties as he moves through the country at walking pace. As some have complained about the number of times he has mentioned food in previous books, he takes special care to ensure we know exactly what he has eaten. So you will read about a few curries, several beers and the odd dram or three and one of the best pork pies he has ever eaten. This is another thoroughly enjoyable book from Maconie and if you have read his others you will almost certainly like this.

I really enjoyed this book. As the teacher in charge of stocking the senior school library, I like to ensure that the books are diverse and the students are exposed to both excellent fiction and excellent modern non-fiction. I think that this is both a fascinating and well-written book that has much to recommend it and will keep the students interests. It is good to stretch their reading interests by providing them with books about subjects they might never have considered before and this definitely does the job well. I love Maconie's voice and I love sharing his writing with others who I know will far under its spell too. It is also good to find books that I know the teaching staff might enjoy as well as the students and I definitely think that this applies in both cases. Absolutely recommend wholeheartedly; a fantastic read.

I had many interruptions which stopped me sitting with this book in one sitting - and I minded very much.

As a social commentary of both the last and the present centuries it is gripping, very fair and gives reasons for he opposite view being held. It is also an enthralling trip through England and its people. From the cosy curry house to the homogenised shopping centre, from the salt of the earth to the dregs of it, he meets them all. And it's so very funny,
The author had researched the Jarrow March very thoroughly and then planned to replicate their itinerary, asking on Twitter for points to include on the route. This was roughly what I'd expected, but beyond that he explains the reasons behind the original. march and the reactions to it - both support and boycott.
Some of the areas are familiar to me, and this made it very interesting, yet the areas I have no knowledge of are just as good.
As then, many people were kin, hospitable and supportive, others less so. From the Big Issue seller who may be homeless but he still has the anti-foreigner spirit of the Brexiteer resenting Polish sellers, to the wake for a man liked locally at the time of his trans Atlantic funeral.
It really does take all sorts and he seems to encounter all of them.
As a travel jaunt, funny book or social history this is one you must read

I love Stuart Maconie - his attitude to life and his authorial (and radio) voice fit well with me. This book ticked all the boxes too, and didn't let me down!
I knew nothing about the march from Jarrow, or indeed the wider marches of the era, and this was a fascinating exploration of society then and now, with Maconie drawing interesting parallels with the present political environment, as well as culture (high and low) and popular opinion.
Loved it, and have been proselytising for it during the read!

A fascinating retracing of the Jarrow March that highlights many social and political similarities between the 1930s and today. Written in a charmingly conversational style, the book does occasionally suffer from Wikipedia-style summaries of events and places, and some references to modern politics do already seem dated given changes since most recent UK election, but overall very much a recommended read.

It may have been 80 years ago but as Stuart Maconie points out, the parallels with today are obvious. Are we closer to civil unrest now or does the world keep turning? Sadly the rich will continue to get richer and the poor will continue to be ignored. An intriguing books, sober and well informed but not without humour. Nice one Stuart.

I knew of the Jarrow March/Crusade in 1936, but not much about it beyond the fact that men from Jarrow in Tyneside marched from their home town to London to present a petition against the mass unemployment and extreme poverty in the north-east of England. Stuart Maconie has filled in the gaps in his excellent book Long Road from Jarrow: A journey through Britain then and now. In October last year he retraced the route they took, 300 miles, comparing what conditions and attitudes were like in 1936 with those of 2016. The men were accompanied for part of their march by Ellen Wilkinson, who was the MP for Middlesbrough East and it was Ellen who presented their petition to the House of Commons. But despite their protest and all Ellen Wilkinson’s efforts on their behalf it didn’t result in any improvements for employment in Jarrow.

Maconie a writer, broadcaster and journalist, writes fluently and with conviction. The Long Road from Jarrow is a mix of travel writing, social and cultural history and political commentary, with the main emphasis on the current social, cultural and political scene. It’s a thought-provoking book that both entertained and enlightened me. Maconie writes about the past, the history of the places he walked through and the tales and reminiscences of the people he met. He also writes with enthusiasm on such topics as football and music and food. It’s a lively, chatty account that includes the thorny topic of Brexit, the current and past state of the north/south divide and considers what it is to be ‘British’.

In 1936, struggling to feed their families after the destruction of the shipbuilding industry, the men of Jarrow were desperate, and no one seemed to be listening. So they set off on a march to London, to deliver a petition to parliament. The march was led by one of the first women in Parliament – Ellen Wilkinson, a passionate feminist and socialist.
There are plenty of myths and legends about the march – many unfounded, but what drove those marchers was their desperation, their frustration that they were forgotten, that no one cared. Sadly, many people today feel like that. And what’s really interesting about this book is the insight it gives into the lives of ordinary people today, and the ordinary (and not so ordinary) history and society that often goes unnoticed and overlooked.
This is, in a way, Maconie’s own tribute to the marchers. He retraces the march, following the same route, covering the same miles on the same days. And as he walks he talks to the local, ordinary people, about politics, about Brexit, about the places they live and about life. He also visits some of the more interesting and quirky places in England and the book includes some unusual and really interesting snippets from history.
There is also a lot of background about the march itself, the politics in which it was born, and the terrible conditions the people of Jarrow experienced. Maconie draws parallels between now and then and it’s quite scary how we seem to be locked in a circle where these terrible things are happening again – and there seems to be no will to change them.
I disagreed with a few things and with some of the conclusions that Maconie draws from his experiences – the reasons behind the Brexit vote and a certain political leader (although his view may have changed since the book was written), but that didn’t detract at all from my enjoyment of the book. It’s really well-written, with a friendly, chatty voice – I felt at times that I was walking along beside the writer. There’s so much here – so much history, so much detail about the country, so many strange little tales and strange people. And it’s more than that. I hate it when people say they’re not interested in politics, or that politics doesn’t affect them. Or when people accuse others of ‘politicising’ something. Life is political. Your housing, your wages, your pension, your education, the food you eat, your job. Your life. It’s all political. People are at the heart of politics, and what this book does is give a reminder of that. It’s a tribute to the marchers, a tribute to Wilkinson, something of a tribute to England. It’s history, politics, geography and sociology all rolled into one. And it’s very entertaining too.

I really enjoyed this journey in the footsteps of the Jarrow Marchers, 80 years on. Maconie investigates the communities they passed through, looking at both the history and our own post-Brexit times, which makes for an effective and interesting comparison. He is open-minded and understanding, not seeking to divide at all or impose his own opinion and is, as usual, a charming companion through the book.

Below are links to my reviews in Shiny New Books online and on my blog and will add the links later.

A book that will appeal to all who like a travel book or some political insight into modern Britain.
It is both an historical remembering of the Jarrow crusade when 200 unemployed men from the north marched to London in the hope to influence future decisions and capital investment to tackle their poverty and lack of work prospects.
That happened in 1936. 80 years later, comedian and writer Stuart Maconie retraced the Jarrow march every step of the way along their route, allowing for interesting detours and the odd reliance on more modern transport.
It is a striking account looking at 2016 from the realities of the original walkers; beautifully balanced between a then and now. It details the history of the original campaign, their welcome along the route and the various support on the way. I was amazed and angry by the official Labour party line and inspired by their local MP Red Ellen.
In his own present, Stuart asks those he meets what they know of the events 80 years previously. He delights in the places he visits and recounts the living history of communities then and now. how they have changed, their passing industries and new residents. The writer has seismic events both in the past; the rise of fascism, and the pacifism leading to war., and in his current events of the US Elections, IS and Brexit.
Maconie tries to explain common hopes and fears in all of the people from North to South, the growing divide. The advance of politics and why class may always have been an unbridgable gulf. It raises hopes as well as serves warnings, he marvels at the wonderful people he has met and the intimacy his walking journey has brought him. Not just in the contracts and comparisons over 80 years in political and social history.
What I loved the most after the historical dimensions of this account were the social insights into contemporary life and how so much has changed in the intervening years from the introduction of TV to the ubiquitous iphone and our lives led on social media. A detailed researcher and knowledgeable fellow Stuart makes the most of his twitter followers to enrich his travels and places to visit.
I loved the many learning points his eclectic understanding of the arts and modern culture led us as he commented and shared openly and without reservation.
From the welcome receipt of Sikh hospitality to the pride and values of an Italian community.
A book that will live long in my consciousness and one that pointed to so many more books, writers and aspects of UK life that had previously blurred past me. Sometimes we see so much more when the pace of life slows and we value more when we stop and take time to listen.

Maconie’s travel writing is always worth a read. He is a keen observer of the places he visits and is never afraid to give you his own views. In this book he decides to follow in the footsteps of the Jarrow Marchers, to find out why they marched, how they were received and whether they are remembered: also, he fancies a nice long walk. Along the way he compares 1936 – with its rise in right-wing politics, wide-spread unemployment and reliance on food handouts and other benefits, and frequent protest marches – with the present day. Some of the comparisons are quite chilling, if I’m honest – at some points the only improvement we seem to have is the NHS – but he is also happy to point out that his nightly accommodation, at least, was a great improvement on the drill halls, schools and churches the marchers were offered. He never downplays the physical effort the march represented but, in order to keep appointments with certain people he meets via social media, he does occasionally jump on a bus. These meetings are often with people who are able to fill in background information on the marchers but he also takes in choral music, a classical piano recital, a pub covers band and a wake. He speaks fondly of many of the marchers themselves (and their dog) and of the Jarrow MP, Ellen Wilkinson, but is scathing of most of the Labour party of the time (who made every effort to distance themselves from the marchers). He’s not fond of Corbyn either but does end his march by meeting Tracy Brabin, the MP for Batley & Spen (elected after the murder of Jo Cox) in the House of Commons.

This book is a fascinating history of the Jarrow March of 1936 but also of the country as it was at the end of last year. In many ways it feels as if very little has changed but maybe books like this can help us – through gentle humour and a little anger – to make sure that the history of the late 1930s is not allowed to repeat itself.

I do like Stuart Maconie's books. He is a very intelligent, thoughtful observer, he always has interesting things to say about what he observes, he's often very funny and he's always a pleasure to read.

In this book, Maconie retraces the route of the Jarrow Crusade, largely sticking to the original route the marchers followed on each day, exactly 80 years later. The result is a thoughtful, entertaining and very informative look at exactly what happened in 1936, and at the Britain he finds in 2016. Maconie is very, very good at just talking to people; he is genuinely interested in them so they tend to open up to him. He has a definite political stance and a firm view on Brexit, for example, but is keen also to try to understand those who disagree with him. He also has a delightful willingness to be pleased with what he finds; he will criticise where appropriate, but he approaches places and people in a spirit of looking for things to like about them which is both refreshing and often revealing about his subjects.

Like so many people I had only a vague notion of the Jarrow Crusade: when it was, who took part, the reception it got and so on. Maconie has put all that right while never being over-earnest about it and his humanity and wit are always apparent. He has also given me an entertaining and very interesting picture of attitudes in parts of Britain today.

Most of all, this is a great read. Don't be put off by the apparently worthy and solemn subject matter; it is honest about the conditions of the marchers and penetrating about political parallels in Britain today, but it's funny, likeable, very readable and, in its way, rather gripping. Very warmly recommended.

(I received an ARC via Netgalley.)

I love Stuart Maconie's travelogue books about his wanderings around Britain and this book is no exception. Maconie walks most of the the route of the Jarrow marchers, who walked from the north east town of Jarrow to London, on the eightieth anniversary of the march for jobs which took place in 1936.
I knew a bit about the march from history lessons but didn't know that the marchers visited some of the towns and cities near where I live in York. Part travelogue, part history and always with humour the book ends at the houses of Parliament which is more than the original marchers were offered. Walking during the turbulent period between Brexit and the election of Trump the story ends with a meeting with Tracy Brabin, the mp who succeeded the late Jo Cox as mp of Batley and Spen.
Very readable without being preachy I devoured this book in a couple of days.

I've read several of Stuart Maconie's books and like his style - and his broadcasting. I found this difficult to start with (probably as his style is a little different from my usual fare) but persisted and wasn't disappointed.

Part social history and part social commentary, this book blends both the 30s and modern day post-brexit vote Britain: as usual a mix of opinions and a wave of discontent from all sides. A very different insight into Britain and worth a read if you enjoy this mix in a book. It's in a similar vein to Bill Bryson but a very different form of wit.

4* from me.

This is one of those books that you might not have picked up but will remain grateful you did. It will transcend generations and gender. Maconie is an excellent and witty guide through the rural quirks of England as he recreates the Jarrow march. Like many people, probably, I thought I "knew" things about the Jarrow march but it seems like many what I knew was the myth. I also knew nothing of Red Ellen and I will definitely go away and research her. Maconie walks the route 80 years after the original and seeks out people in various pubs and tea rooms to find out what the areas believe about the march. There are local historians, pub landlords, cafe owners and a disparate mix of entertaining individuals. I thoroughly enjoyed the journey and have new found respect for the community of Jarrow and the communities along the way who helped them. The sadness is that these communities were part of what was lost when the mines were closed and the working class opportunities reduced over the years. It is easy to get nostalgic while reading this book. Recommended for older people who may have vague memories of their family legends concerning the march, young people interested in social history and anyone looking for a good read.

I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley in return for an honest review.

Stuart Maconie's travel journalism is a cut above most of its genre, he can write, he has read and he because of those he can tell you a good tale.

In his telling and tracing of the route of the Jarrow Crusade he often makes reference to how they were somehow soft in not making their long walk political (scared, it seemed of hash reactions). This is oddly counterpointed by the amount in which Stuart's context setting of the contemporary situations and his thoughts are a window into the softest 'both sides are bad, so I must be right' centrism that he is very confident of.

A pity for him then, that the real-world political situation has altered wildly in between writing and publication: his sneering at the left and their 'sandals' and his dismissal of the current leadership of the Labour Party (oddly, when he's criticising the past leadership for not supporting the march), is out of time.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it – George Santayana

Stuart Maconie, author, broadcaster, journalist and commentator on cultural and social history is, by virtue of education and profession, now one of the intelligentsia. Very much a Lancashire lad (Wigan, as he reminds us) he has not lost his roots, and has a pleasing down to earth quality in his writing. Thoughtful, intelligent, warm, humorous, this also shows a lively interest in people in all their diversity.

In the wake of last year’s referendum, Maconie, like most of us, found himself musing on our divided nation. Connections between the 1930’s and the present seemed to be suggesting themselves, as right wing, populist politics, divisive and suspicious of outsiders, seemed on the rise

2016 was the 80th anniversary of the 1936 Jarrow March/Jarrow Crusade, occasioned by the closure of the single employer on which all else depended, the steelworks. Unemployment was rising in the country, and the gaps between rich and poor, South and North, were obvious. 200 men set out to march to London to deliver a petition to Parliament. Jarrow captured the public imagination, and the March has become a legend of dignity,resistance and solidarity on the one hand and uncaring capitalism on the other, a divided nation

Maconie, a keen walker, decided to emulate the 300 mile journey made by the Marchers, following their daily itinerary, ‘visiting the same towns and comparing the two Englands of then and now’

Some of the parallels were very clear:

“The rise of extremism here and abroad fired by financial disasters, a wave of demagoguery and ‘strong man’ populism. Foreign wars driven by fundamentalist ideologies leading to the mass displacement of innocent people. A subsequent refugee ’crisis’. The threat of constitutional anarchy with conflict between government, parliament and judiciary. Manufacturing industries, especially steel, facing extinction….Inflammatory rhetoric stoked by a factionalised press…….A country angrily at odds with itself over its relationship to Europe, the elephant in the nation: Brexit’

This is far more than a purely personal story of one man’s walk. Maconie engages with the people he meets, garners stories of then and now, recounts the history of the places he travels through,, whilst following some of his own interests, football, music – of all kinds, and finding, often conviviality and hospitality around food, reflecting the cultures who have added, across the centuries, to the rich loam of this island .

This is an engaging, fascinating account, sometimes angry, often scathing about those whose manipulations fostered the divisions and uncertainties we now face, populists of the right and of the left. What stands out, again and again, is the richness of a culture, in this country, which has always been eclectic, fed by generations of ‘outsiders’ across the centuries, settling, marrying, having children who have feet in the history and culture of the new homeland, and influences from the old. ‘ Britishness’ develops, as it always has

In some ways, albeit with more humour, this reminds me, in the serious things it is saying, of Joe Bagent’s 2008 ‘Deer Hunting With Jesus’ : Guns, Votes, Debt and Delusion in Redneck America, which looks at the rise of support for the Republican Party which came from those who might have been expected to find the Democrats their home.

This is cultural and social history as I prefer it – humanly, rather than statistically explored, entertaining whilst informing.

I was delighted to be offered this as an ARC, from the publishers via NetGalley, and thoroughly enjoyed this 300 mile walk, with no blisters, and in totally clement weather

Although I have listened to Stuart Maconie for many years on various radio programmes I confess I had never read any of his written word thinking it would be confined to the pop music business - how wrong I was!
Although I had a tiny bit of knowledge about the Jarrow march from school history lessons these generally bored me as the teachers were just going through the motions when teaching about the hardships of the working man following the depression.
I thought his premise of the book to retrace the walk from Jarrow to London was a superb way to tell the story from a different perspective. The book is interesting and entertaining but told the story of the reasons why the ex-shipyard workers made the march to London to deliver their petition.

Pleasantly surprised!