I've experienced life in a few interesting towns, from Aberdeen, where ostentatious oilmen do battle with granitic grannies, to Liverpool, where scally dockers jostle with Tate-bound artists. I've never felt as tense as I do in Durham, however, or as ambivalent about a place.
It is light-of-the-world and it is salt-of-the-earth. It is poor and northern, and rich and southern. It is shabby and it is spectacular. It is home-grown and far-flung. It is Hooligan Harry and it is Hooray Henry.
As a middle-class Midlander, I am none of these things, which is probably why it makes me feel the way I do. I feel like a complete interloper, and I am unnerved.
It is light-of-the-world and it is salt-of-the-earth. It is poor and northern, and rich and southern. It is shabby and it is spectacular. It is home-grown and far-flung. It is Hooligan Harry and it is Hooray Henry.
As a middle-class Midlander, I am none of these things, which is probably why it makes me feel the way I do. I feel like a complete interloper, and I am unnerved.
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