Like to read? Some recommendations for books inspired by or set in the Yorkshire Dales. James Herriot’s series is of course best known, largely thanks to TV. We’ll hopefully soon see work by another dales author on TV – Julia Chapman's The Dales Detective series. Set in the fictional market town of Bruncliffe (Settle), her excellent ‘cosy crime’ books are full of recognisable scenes and characters. She plots as she runs ‘on the tops’.
Peter Robinson set some of this DCI Banks detective novels in the Yorkshire Dales, I think around Richmond. There are yet more deaths in Frances Brody's Kate Shackleton Detective series, set in several Yorkshire Dales locations in the 1920s. Susan Parry's mysteries are also peppered with local details: her next book cover is designed by local artist Hester Cox - Printmaker.
Ian Scott Massie - Artist has collected a series of tales and folklore and illustrated them with his beautiful and distinctive style for Tales of the Dales. You can buy several of his illustrated books and poetry collections at Masham Gallery.
Many authors have given their accounts of life in the Yorkshire Dales. Some have become so loved, their works have become collectors' items and much-prized social history. WR Mitchell, or Bill as many knew him, was prolific. He loved people and their stories, and spent much of his life interviewing and collecting tales which give some marvellous insights. You can listen to some of his interviews thanks to an archive created by Settle Stories. As their name implies, they continue to encourage story writing and telling.
For fantastic social history dip into Marie Hartley & Joan Ingilby's Life & Tradition in the Yorkshire Dales, Yorkshire Cottage by Ella Pontefract and Marie Hartley as welll as Swaledale, and Wensleydale.
Sheep farmer, Amanda Owen continues to recount farming life in her Yorkshire Shepherdess books. Neil Hanson gives a completely different insight into life in the Dales with The Inn at the Top, his account of the trials and tribulations of life as the landlord at The Tan Hill Inn.
I bought Haytime in the Yorkshire Dales edited by Don Gamble & Tanya St. Pierre some time ago and still love to dip into the pictures and descriptions of our wonderful flower-rich hay meadows. It covers their biodiversity, traditional farming methods and how they’ve inspired creative people for generations.
There are countless guides to the Yorkshire Dales. Look out for those by Colin Speakman, Mark Reid, Chris Grogan and Jonathan Smith, and Colin Speakman.
Which books and authors do you love? Which have I missed?
We've got some excellent independent bookshops so you'll get more great recommendations from The Stripey Badger Bookshop, Coffee Shop & Kitchen, The Little Ripon Bookshop, Limestone Books, The Grive Bookshop, Castle Hill Bookshop and of course @WestwoodBooksSedbergh andVisit Sedbergh Booktown.
A note on buying books online: if you can’t make it in person to an independent bookshop, go to uk.bookshop.org where you can order online and the commission will go to a shop you nominate instead of a giant company who won’t benefit our local economies.
Image of Settle tops thanks to The Roaming Hind - you can almost feel the fresh air through the photo!