A Biography of Yorkshire with Rick Broadbent

As part of the 2023 Farsley Literature Festival, join us in the shop to hear Rick Broadbent in conversation about Now Then.

Written from the perspective of an exiled Yorkshire-man this bestselling, award winning author returns to his native county to discover and reveal, its soul.

Now Then is a biographical mosaic of Yorkshire. Broadbent, goes in search of the soul of England’s biggest county and produces an all-encompassing portrait of a place that has been victimised and stereotyped since the days of Williams the Conqueror. Incorporating social history, memoir, reportage and author interviews, Now Then paints a picture of what it means to be from Yorkshire – both now and back then.

Now Then is not a hagiography and Broadbent visits devastated mining communities, an inner-city homeless shelter and the county’s most isolated sheep farm, as well as examining the truth about well-known Yorkshire figures and institutions. From the Bronte sisters and Marks & Spencer to the Yorkshire pudding, accent and Ripper, this is a funny, wise and searching account of the county that gave the world its first football club and its last witch-burning. Ultimately, this is an affectionate but unsparing look at a county, its people and their flinty vowels. It is about the real Yorkshire and its daily life, as well as Dracula and Geoffrey Boycott.