JB Priestley's views on the North East examined again

Oct 26 2009 by Tony Henderson, The Journal

It was 75 years ago that a leading writer’s views on the North East caused uproar. Tony Henderson reports on the continuing reverberations

WHEN the novelist and playwright J B Priestley described the North East in his 1934 best-selling book English Journey, it must have sounded to his southern readers as not so much like another country as a different planet.

Priestley arrived in the region in 1933 in the midst of the Great Depression, the depth of which makes the current recession feel like a minor inconvenience.

Of Gateshead, Priestley wrote: “The whole town appeared to have been carefully planned by an enemy of the human race. Insects can do better than this.”

Of the stretch between Wallsend and North Shields, he commented: “If T S Eliot ever wants to write a poem about a real wasteland he should come here.”

And of Hebburn: “You felt there was nothing in the whole place worth a five pound note.”

The writer had started his journey in Southampton and worked his way to Newcastle before turning back.

Tomorrow, the 75th anniversary of the publication of English Journey will be marked by a free public event at Newcastle’s Discovery Museum.

J B Priestley’s son, Tom, will retrace his father’s footsteps to be part of the night, which will also include a talk by John Tomaney, Professor of Regional Development at Newcastle University.

He will contrast J B Priestley’s observations with those of 17th, 18th and 19th Century writers who visited the North East.

The event will also mark the publication at £25 by Great Northern Books of a new anniversary edition of English Journey, restored to its original length.

Priestley’s verdict on the North East caused a stir at the time and he has been accused of adopting a disparaging attitude.

But the Discovery event will explore whether he has been misjudged.

In fact, during a short time in the First World War, Priestley had been stationed at Tynemouth.

Tom Priestley, who lives in London, says: “It was something of a downer about the North East, but it was not about the place itself but what my father found there.