Into the heart of our home ground
A sweeping new biography by Times journalist Rick Broadbent takes on a vast subject – Yorkshire. He talks to Chris Burn about his very personal journey into what makes God’s Own Country unique.
AS a sports journalist, author and ghostwriter, Rick Broadbent’s normal focus is on other people’s stories. But his fantastic new book ventures into more personal territory during his exploration of the concept of ‘Yorkshireness’ and whether such a thing even exists.
Broadbent’s cleverly-titled Now Then: A Biography of Yorkshire explores the present and past of the county, as well as the idiosyncrasies the region is (in)famous for from its supposed personality types to quirky sayings.
His way into such a huge subject is a simple explanation of where the idea for it began; accompanying his mother to take his late father’s ashes out of Tadcaster Cemetery to be scattered at a favourite family spot in Cornwall 25 years after his death at the age of just 51.
It got Broadbent, who left Yorkshire at 19 for university and now lives in Dorset, asking himself the question of “whether, in this life or the next, you ever really leave Yorkshire”.
This book is being published 12 years on from the scattering of his dad’s ashes and ends with another emotional trip with his mum – who also lives in Dorset and is now dealing with Alzheimer’s – back to her home city of Bradford and some of her favourite locations in Yorkshire.
“My dad was always going to be the start of the book,” Broadbent explains to The Yorkshire Post over Zoom. “He’d always wanted to have his ashes scattered in Cornwall. When we did that it got me thinking about leaving Yorkshire and what makes you and does it matter where you live and where you are buried?
“With my mum, I didn’t really plan on writing too much about her. But when she got diagnosed with Alzheimer’s during the writing of the book we wanted to take her back for a bit of a tour to see her roots.
“Doing that got me thinking about how important people and places are. Alzheimer’s is a cruel disease which burgles your own home and messes up your filing cabinet. Going back and realising she did remember things, it makes you realise how important place is really. So I really wanted to end the book