The North East FTW

[shewhomust]

I didn't see Grayson Perry's series In the Best Possible Taste - I wish I had, but I missed it. An interesting article in yesterday's Guardian offers a taste of what I missed. Perry is interviewing a man from Sunderland about what's so great about the place:

"We've got the beautiful beaches, a beautiful football team," said the Mackem bloke, who was in his 20s and gave the impression of both believing what he said and laughing at himself for saying it. "Everything about Sunderland you just love! The history as well! Our mining history, the shipyards history which is all gone now, but we're still living the tradition. I mean my dad's still a coal miner to this day."
"What else?" asked Perry.
"Well … the heritage."
"But that's the past."
"Well, we're proud that we're still here. We're still together aren't we? We might have nothing now but we still have the … generosity."
"Is that the industry now, generosity?"
"Yes!" replied the man victoriously. "Generosity – and call centres!"

As Richard Benson, the author of the article, remarks, "Only a Newcastle United supporter could have failed to sympathise..."

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to watch VERA.