Loved all 3 of this series hoping for a 4th

Really enjoyed the book. Loved the parallels and counterpoints between the two groups of children, and the depiction of a bygone age. The ending, was very moving.

My copy of “The Northern Elements” arrived yesterday afternoon and less than 24 hours later I have read it. At some 200 pages it is not a particularly long book, however, that aside, I enjoyed it so much that I kept on turning the pages. The reader is thrust into a world now gone – absent are the hovering parents of today shuttling their children from activity to activity – to one of outdoor play with friends with no questions asked, so long as “you are back by tea time”.

Themes are artfully developed by the author, but the reader could be forgiven for thinking that this is a book targeted at a teenage audience – that is, until Part Two. The second section will have particular resonance with those retired and in the autumn of their life, however, it is also certain to have wider appeal.

A very engaging and quite different yarn which will satisfy and although conclusive, in many ways will leave the reader wanting more.

I was made aware of this novel by a friend who grew up in Blackburn, and I suspect that many of its readers will buy it for the local atmosphere, but for someone like me who grew up in an industrial town in south Wales, the author evokes the emotions and adventures that we experienced growing up in the 1950s. It is rare to read such an authentic account of the dynamics of the gangs in which we spent the free time of our pre-adolescent lives. The book also brings to light how adventurous we were; our parents generous with the freedom they gave us, without the restrictions imposed by later generations of more cautious parents. But the tragic consequences of such freedom are not avoided. For a reader like me who is impatient with much fiction and needs to be gripped from the start, I found the initial pace to be a little slow, but the ending made it all worthwhile. Overall an excellent read that needs to be better known, and yes, as another reviewer has suggested, it would make an interesting basis for an original film.

This book is extremely well written and is partly set in an area of Blackburn I grew up in. The chapters alternate between a group of boys growing up in the 1890’s and a group growing up in the 1960’s. The book is in two parts and near the end of the book there is a surprise to the reader. The descriptions of 1960’s Blackburn and the area of Little Harwood brought back my own experiences as a child, the things that we did, the things that we said were so accurate it transported me back in time. The 1890’s accounts were also fascinating. I cannot wait for Ian Thomson’s next book which he is writing, again to be set in Blackburn, where he lived for a time as a child. If you have read “The Road to Nab End” and “Beyond Nab End you will love this book. I recommended ” The Northern Elements” to a great friend from my childhood in the 60’s who lived next door to me and he was also fascinated and enthralled with this book. I couldn’t put it down.

In general, a novel has to engage me rapidly. This means introducing at least some of the main characters quickly, alongside setting the scene with some irresistible temptations to continue. In Northern Elements, Ian Thomson succeeds admirably, even though he has to establish a set of characters in 18901891, on the one hand, and 1960/1961 on the other. There is some connection between the two groups, which needs to be grasped, and the scene is geographically the same, Blackburn in Lancashire, which is unambiguously identified in the first section (he doesn’t have Chapters) to deal with 1890, there being an alternation between the two periods throughout the novel. In both eras a group of 10/11 year old lads are ‘playing out’ as Lancashire folk used, and perhaps still do, say. The descriptive detail for 1960/61 is wonderfully presented, based on the author’s evidently impressive memory of his own life in those days. But for 1890/91 Ian Thomson is back extrapolating, based no doubt on research, yet the reader would be hard pressed to discern any discontinuity in ‘feel’. Thus for example, when he describes a tram ride to Wilpshire in 1890/91 the narrative is based on careful research; there was such a route at that time but it was abandoned before Ian Thomson was born. But the actual description of the journey and of Wilpshire at the time must be based on his imagination. One can throughout sense the ‘northern elemental’ connection between the two periods. The plot is developed by reference to daily adventures of the boys in the two periods and readily intrigues the reader as to where it is going, as one can almost envisage ‘playing out’ with the boys. To say much more would be giving the game away, but suffice it to say that a connection between the events of 1890/91 and 1960/61 develops, together with a final revelation of what really happened that emerged in later years. I am told that novels are harder to end than to begin; Ian Thomson develops a good ending which stretches the imagination only a little.

I confess that I read Northern Elements because through the sometimes random nature of Google searches, I came across the author and realised that he and I had been for several years been in the same form at secondary school, but without any contact for over 50 years. So Blackburn is well known to me. Although I came from a different part of town, the locations are all, to a greater or lesser extent, familiar. So the question I should pose is would I have enjoyed the Northern Elements had it been based in Burnley, the neighbouring town and big football rival? The answer is an emphatic ‘yes’ as the descriptions and story would have drawn me in. Had I originated ‘south of Watford Gap’ the story and writing would still have enthralled. Go on, try it; I would be surprised if you were disappointed!

Loved ‘The Northern Elements’. It was such an exciting mix: detective/time-shift/historical/social memoir…read it in a day! Surely a Netflix film on the horizon?

The consequences of a childish prank gone wrong echo down the generations and their full significance is only brought to light seventy years later by a retired forensic scientist. The subtlety of the book’s complex plotting is understated because the clear prose makes for easy reading. The childhood scenes, from 1890 and 1960, run parallel and there are many delightful comparisons and contrasts between the lives of ten year old boys from these widely spaced decades. The scenes are as a vivid as if you were watching a film, touching, but also very funny until they are suddenly cut short by a completely unexpected tragedy. The unravelling that takes place in the second half of the book in our own time is masterly and the reflective final paragraphs are really moving. Despite the title, you don’t have to be Northern to enjoy it – (I’m not) – because the truths in this little volume are genuinely elemental.

I’m just a few years older than the author and grew up in the same town. He paints an accurate picture of working class boys in Blackburn in the early post Second World War period – although with one or two inaccuracies. Little Harwood is north east of the town centre, not north west and King George’s Hall wasn’t around in 1890 (it opened 1921). A good plausible yarn and an easy read.

My stomping ground having spent the first 18 yrs of my life on Whalley Range from 1952. St Michaels my first school and I used to cross the little bridge mentioned on my way to school every morning, both my parents at one time worked in Brookhouse Lane. I thoroughly enjoyed this read and hope there will be others. Thank you.