Reviews
As Craig Bradley says, there are a lot of Yorkshires. His personal version is viewed with a wry eye through a fresh and quirky prism and from the depths of the inherited overcoat of the title. He may find that it was a little unkind of his publisher to saddle him with the unenviable title of Yorkshire's Bill Bryson but the pair do share an offbeat take on familiar places and a gentle eye for the absurd. This is a book to dip into at night and have a chuckle before drifting off to sleep safe in the knowledge that all is right with the world - even if it is a little weird.
Terry Fletcher, The Dalesman
Craig Bradley loves language, plain, muscular language with no frills. Direct and unambiguous. But above all, funny. Bradley plays with words and throws them about like half bricks, with fine aim and great effect. Yorkshire in a Crombie is a minor masterpiece of quick and quirky humour.
Tim Power,
Halifax Evening Courier
Bradley is a master of the thoughts that go off at a tangent, yet invariably seem both relevant and entertaining. Yorkshire in a Crombie is a great book that I found hard to put down.
Tony Pogson,
Huddersfield DailyExaminer
Loved it. Really enjoyable.
Martin Dawes, Sheffield Star
I love this book. I couldn’t put it down – it’s a really funny read.
Paul Dews, Yorkshire Evening Post
I liked it. Bradley has a fantastic story and Yorkshire in a Crombie is a great book.
Bernie Clifton, BBC Radio Sheffield
Very enjoyable and entertaining. I found Bradley's book fascinating.
Jeff Glover, Yorkshire Tourist Board
Energetic and hugely funny, full of the Yorkshire I love – Bradley deserves to take the world by storm with his brilliant observation of characters.
James Nash, The Leeds Guide
Fantastic, a really brilliant read. The best book I’ve read about Yorkshire for ages
Jules & Julia Show, BBC Radio York
Funny, witty and original. This book has all the bits about Yorkshire that they don’t put in the brochures. If it was a stick of rock it’d have Yorkshire running through it.
Allan Hollings, Fresh AM The Dales Radio
Craig’s book has been praised to the skies. It’s absolutely brilliant and he looks great in his Uncle Jim’s Crombie.
Christa Ackroyd, BBC Look North
Yorkshire in a Crombie
“hugely enjoyable … reminds me of a funnier ‘All
Points North’.”
Oliver Mantell, Audiences Yorkshire
"Craig Bradley has written a Yorkshire road
movie, a Yorkshire Odyssey. As he says, there are many Yorkshires, and although
he's given us his own very personal one in this book, its somehow chimes
with mine, and I know it will chime with yours."
Ian McMillan, Writer and Broadcaster
When his Uncle Jim died, Craig Bradley inherited a coat. It was a big, no-nonsense Crombie and it smelt of the past. A past full of flat caps, muck and brass. The coat asked questions. What is Yorkshire? Is there such a thing as Yorkshireness? Do Yorkshire folk have their own character? When a coat like the Crombie asks you a question, you’d better come up with an answer, and that’s what Craig has done. From football to music, from food to drink, from Leeds to York to Sheffield to Sigglesthorne, this is one man’s journey through his home county. Yorkshire in a Crombie is a new way of looking at an old place.
A lively mix of travel writing, autobiography and observation. An original, funny and affectionate look at the biggest county of them all. Yorkshire has found its own Bill Bryson.
Extract from Yorkshire in a Crombie
There are many Yorkshires.
There’s yours and there’s mine. There was Mum’s Yorkshire: kids, Sunday dinners and daytrips to Scarborough. There’s my sister’s Yorkshire: kids, microwave dinners and hen-nights in Scarborough. And then there’s my brother’s Yorkshire: kids, no dinners and bollocks to Scarborough.
There is a Yorkshire that talks in a telephone voice, wears Hush Puppies and minds its P’s and Q’s. A Yorkshire that has nicely pressed creases in its nicely pressed Sunday-best suit. A Yorkshire that never misses Heartbeat and laughs itself silly at Last of the Summer Wine repeats. A Yorkshire that drinks tea with its little pinky sticking out and lives in a cosy, cotton-wool world of village fetes, homemade jam and having the vicar round on Sundays.
There is another version.
There is a Yorkshire that drinks, smokes and likes a flutter on the gee-gees. One that sweats, swears and messes around with loose women. A Yorkshire that sings too loudly at last orders and arm-wrestles bald, tattooed bouncers. There’s a Yorkshire that looks you in the eye and gets on with it. A Yorkshire that knows a thing or two about a thing or two, about football and racing, about music and Kes and chicken bhunas , about getting stuck in and changing a gearbox on the hard-shoulder of the M62 when it’s peeing down, because it’s always peeing down. It knows all this, not through books or telly or surfing the web, but by the cuts and calluses on its hands, by the bags under its eyes and the beer in its belly. This Yorkshire has been around. It’s been there and done it. It sings and it dances. This is my version.
This is my Yorkshire.