I’ve felt weirdly silenced for the past few days while this blog was down – am sincerely hoping the tech problems are fixed for good now. Meanwhile I’ve been writing a paper, an outline, a research proposal, and reading for light relief Peter Davidson’s [amazon_link id=”1780235984″ target=”_blank” ]The Idea of North[/amazon_link]. It’s a cultural history that does what it says on the cover, a lovely book. It has many wonderful passages but the most quirky, I suppose, was the revelation about the economic significance of beaver pelts in the exploration and staking of claims in Canada. The highly desirable fur led to ever-expanding hunting of the creatures, which in turn prompted fighting between different tribes as well as competing imperial explorers. “The pursuit of ever more distand beavers thus become the impetus both for mapping and for the creation of empires, indigenous and colonial.”

[amazon_image id=”1861892306″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Idea of North (Topographics)[/amazon_image]

It set me thinking about what else I’ve read about norths. I have a treasured signed copy of Seamus Heaney’s [amazon_link id=”B004FPP5VA” target=”_blank” ]North[/amazon_link]. There’s Paul Morley’s [amazon_link id=”1408834014″ target=”_blank” ]The North[/amazon_link] about the north of England. Ted Hughes and Faye Goodwin’s [amazon_link id=”0571114261″ target=”_blank” ]Remains of Elmet[/amazon_link], ditto but more poetic. Charles Nevin’s [amazon_link id=”1845960378″ target=”_blank” ]Lancashire, Where Women Die of Love[/amazon_link], ditto, in a very different way. Elizabeth Bowen’s novel [amazon_link id=”0099287765″ target=”_blank” ]To the North[/amazon_link].

Moving to a wider geographic stage, Jill Ker Conway’s memoir, [amazon_link id=”0394281209″ target=”_blank” ]True North[/amazon_link], [amazon_link id=”0099563835″ target=”_blank” ]Into the Silence[/amazon_link] by Wade Davis about George Mallory and Everest, Francis Spufford’s brilliant (like all his books) [amazon_link id=”0571179517″ target=”_blank” ]I May Be Some Time: Ice and the English Imagination[/amazon_link].

I’m sure there must be others. As Davidson says, there is something so simply evocative about the phrase: “To the North.”