The stirrings

Catherine Taylor’s account of growing up in northern England in the 1970s and 80s shines a light on the particular history of a time and place – that ‘strange country of the North’ as George Orwell famously called it. Against this backdrop, and of music, the miners’ strike, fears of nuclear war, and economic downturn – all of which become a character of sorts in her writing, Catherine Taylor creates a series of very personal essays on subjects traditionally seen as taboo: parental estrangement, abortion, chronic illness, and how an obsession with the serial killer who stalked Yorkshire throughout her childhood became the inspiration for early feminism – all shot through with poetry, risk-taking and humour.