Frank Graham was one of the principal authors and publishers of books about the history of North-east England in the late twentieth century. He is probably best-remembered for his series of booklets, usually wire-stapled pamphlets of thirty-two or sixty-four pages, covering succinctly places or personalities of interest or aspects of working life on Tyneside or the surrounding counties. Perhaps the best-known among these were the ‘Geordie Beuks’, largely written by Scott Dobson or Dick Irwin, humorously developing Geordie culture and often written in or as guides to the local tongue, beginning with Larn Yersel’ Geordie (1970). There were also collections of folk song, new and reprinted; facsimiles of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century authorities on north-east history; and series of booklets on the history and culture of other parts of England, including Cornwall, Devon, the Lake District and Yorkshire.
Frank Graham’s books on North-east England were perhaps unrivalled for their enthusiasm, their sense of place and their vision of regional culture. In these posts, I explore some of Graham’s publications, some authored by him and others not, and with them his and his colleagues’ outlook on Northumbria in the second half of the twentieth century. The first posts were made on 8 August 2020.
Frank Graham – Notes on a Life
Six books (8 August 2020)
1958 [1960]: Lindisfarne or Holy Island, by Frank Graham
1969: Mostly Mining, by William A. Moyes
1971: The Geordie Song Book, edited by Frank Graham
1974: Geordie Pride, by Ronald Embleton, Sid Chaplin and Frank Graham
1976: Historic Newcastle, by Frank Graham
1984 [1990]: Hadrian’s Wall in the Days of the Romans, by Ronald Embleton and Frank Graham
These pages are not associated with Butler Publishing or the Graham family.
Thanks to many contributors to Skyscraper City’s Newcastle forums, and to the British Newspaper Archive.
Matthew Kilburn 