MORE THAN A LINE ON A MAP
By Terry Ashby
Walker and writer Terry Ashby, a member of The Yorkshire Society, invites readers to accompany him on his journey along the historic North Riding-West Riding Boundary, from Swarth Fell Pike in the high Pennines to the outskirts of York, to prove its continuing existence despite officialdom’s attempts to extinguish it. On the way he describes the Boundary’s geology, landscapes and wildlife, tells of its origins and history and recounts the stories of the localities along its course and the significant individuals who have contributed to those stories over the centuries.
This is essentially a travel book. It is not just about the past – it discusses many serious contemporary issues, some highly contentious and political, affecting not only Yorkshire but the countryside in general; the author never hesitates to express his opinions and pulls no punches. Reference is made to the Society’s Big Yorkshire Conversation survey and its results and to the Chief Executive’s response to the Yorkshire Post’s enquiry about Yorkshire qualities.
But there is humour here too, with an attempt to define the Yorkshire character, the concept of “Yorkshireness”, and the narrative is enlivened with anecdotes in Yorkshire dialect, the author’s own quirky comments and excerpts from poems and folk songs. There is probably no other book in publication which gathers together in one volume so much information on so many different topics from so many different sources.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Terry Ashby, Author
Born where the West Riding’s urban areas encroach on the Pennine hills Terry Ashby is a proud and professional Yorkshireman. A former local government officer, legal executive and chartered surveyor, he is fascinated by wild and remote country and has spent much of his life exploring the fells and moors of northern England, together with strange and exotic places in other parts of the world. His interests are wide-ranging – local and natural history, geology, geography, architecture, conservation and social, cultural and political aspects of rural life. His first book, Yorkshire’s North-West Frontier, was published in 2019. He works as a volunteer on countryside management programmes in the North Pennines.
ORDER A SIGNED COPY
If you would like a copy of the book, at £15 plus p+p, please contact the author (for a signed copy) or publisher:
Email boundary21@hotmail.com or telephone 07526 486201, or from The Book Dragon, 6 West Row, Stockton on Tees, TS18 1BT, http://www.thebookdragon.co.uk, tel: 01642 670906.