Secret York: An Unusual Guide (Secret Guides): A guide to the unusual and unfamiliar (Jonglez Secret Guides) Paperback – 29 April 2022

Having used the Secret London book a lot during lockdown I was delighted to find this new book out on York for a weekend up there. Loads of hidden gems in here that you would normally just walk past and a great way of finding out more about this beautiful city. My favourite has to be the windmill in the middle of a very ordinary residential road!

Secret York was a simply phenomenal read, that marries a jocular style with an intimate understanding of all of the joys that York has to offer and reminds you that one should never judge a walled city in Northeast England by it’s cover, as there are always more secrets to discover.

Reaching for a copy from the bookshop shelves I asked myself the question, why, when there already exists Paul Chrystal’s excellent book and Mark Taylor’s fascinating website both with the identical title? True, this book features York Freemasons Lodge, and tells of illegal practices of Roman Catholicism held at Bar Convent, yet at a closer look it appears that SECRET YORK by ISOBEL AKERMAN is brought to us courtesy of international travel guide maestro Thomas Jonglez whose suave and tanned image grins out at us from the back page of each of the 53 ‘secret guides.’ The sub title ‘An Unusual Guide’ reveals that ‘secret’ is really no more than a title of ‘branding’ convenience, for this purpose it just means ‘off beat.’Isobel Akerman writes in a chatty colloquial style, pausing frequently to give readers (many of whom will be folk whose ‘mother tongue’ is not English) detailed yet genteelly unpatronizing explanations, it’s a joy for all to read. And – by crikey – do the facts and anecdotes flow thick and fast. I don’t wish to draw a comparison which might be considered by others to be inappropriate, but I can’t help recalling my many visits to English country houses where each room seemed to be patrolled by a well-meaning but over enthusiastic historical volunteer. You asked an innocent down-to-earth question – such as, “are those handles original iron, or modern steel copies?” only to receive the answer, “ooh I couldn’t tell you that, but see that bed behind you?” (proudly) “Nell Gwynne slept in that!” Well, this book is all that and ‘with knobs on.’ There’re folk sayings, boot scrapers, candle snuffings, bell-ringings and Charlie Chaplin. Everything seems to be the ‘largest,’ ‘smallest,’ ‘widest,’ the ‘longest,’ ‘tallest,’ and of course, ‘the oldest.’ But there’s one overwhelming difference between this seemingly endless procession of Michael Cainesque ‘not-a-lot-of-people-know-that’, historical nuggets, and that is that Isobel Akerman can not only tell you the difference between iron and steel, she can actually give you the engineering specifications for the cathedral chapter house roof, tell you about the solar system, cooperative trading, market gardening, war science, law, literacy, insurance, electric light, local government and leases. I dare say that if pushed, she would even have something to say about Nell Gwynne – should you really wish to know. She’s clearly a literary and historical emerging star!As I was browsing, a second question forced its way into my mind. Just what has little, provincial, parochial, inward-looking, protectionist and ethnically undiverse York done to rival Amsterdam, Berlin, Los Angeles, Rio (and 49 other international developed cities) for the attentions of M. Jonglez? The answer I believe is this; we all have a severe problem in the form of likely slow – to faster - climatic Armageddon, but in the short-term York has a more pressing problem, it’s identity. Liverpool, Glasgow, Brighton, Edinburgh and Belfast will almost certainly survive the 21st century because they’ve developed. York will almost certainly not, because instead of developing as a modern business city with ‘old stuff’ it’s fallen into the trap of over reliance on tourism and a preoccupation with building student accommodation and car parks. What about York people? It’s desperately seeking a boost (what Ms Akerman might well call a ‘sugar rush’), but it can only be for short term. Let’s face it, this is promotional literature. Anodyne adjectives like ‘charming’ proliferate, and I lost count of the number of times the word ‘beautiful’ or ‘beautifully’ occurs.And there’s something else, where is the discourse? The introduction – or conclusion - which puts all these tasty historical McNuggets into the context of how we build our future. As the holder of a Cambridge MA in philosophy, Isobel Akerman is the last person to shy away from giving us this, but I believe she can’t because it doesn’t fit the Jonglez format with its map-led narrative – even though in 2021 it was found that more people could read satnav and google than could a conventional map. Where is the bibliography? The index is no more than the list of items, the Acknowledgements cover little more than a square inch of paper. Ms Akerman is a proven academic but there’s no sign of references, and where is the ebook with its hyperlinks?The book gets better as you read on, though frankly the writing style doesn’t need to, its inspirational as it is, with phrases such as ‘stuck between bushes and barely noticeable’ – that’s Queen Vic’s statue in West-Bank-park, and ‘Askham Bog’s excuse for being so wet and soggy is that it was born in the ice age.’ But the book’s environmental conscience only seems to kick in in the form of items on the survivor tree, electric trams, cycling, and the – frankly frightening - revelation that York has only 3% woodland cover – that’s against 13% for the rest of England and a staggering 21% for London, yes, see why London may well survive longer than York! Real food for thought, meanwhile the easily chewable ‘breaded’ historical nuggets may very likely end up at the bottom of the New Lake of Hull in even less time than scientists are forecasting.One more thing, there’s a ‘medallion’ authoritatively stamped on the cover of the book which reads ‘local guides by local people.’ I stand prepared to be told otherwise and duly castigated for even daring to have had the thought, but I can’t help wondering as to whether a Surrey-educated twenty-something author who has spent nearly all her life as a student has actually ever been a council tax-paying resident of York.This book has the feel of a rush job – oh, not the writing, but the layout, the cover design – even the binding (measures 16mm at the spine and 11mm on the binding) looks as if it was meant to have more pages in it than it actually has.I would sincerely like to read more Isobel Akerman, but free from the constricting aegis of Jonglez Publishing.

A great little factual book full of very interesting facts and quirky anecdotes, highly recommendable

Lots of things that I and my partner (who is York born and bred) didn’t know about. York is a pretty compact city and you can see and do a lot in a short space of time. Reccomended

I’m so glad I purchased this guide before going to York - it was great to be taken off the beaten track and learn about places and things you wouldn’t normally find. 10/10 would recommend!