Ey up, it's not only footie, pints and pies that are better up north - the humour also takes some beating. Whether it's comics like Peter Kay, Les Dawson and Victoria Wood, telly shows like Corrie and Open All Hours, or writers like Alan Bennett and Keith Waterhouse, the funniest and best-loved invariably hail from the land of perpetual drizzle (another thing they do better). This grand collection of northern wit is packed with these favourites and more. Likely lads and lippy lasses cast a wry eye on subjects close to the heart of every northerner, including: brass, grub, graft, courting, cricket, tittle-tattle and t'weather. What we laugh at tells us a lot about who we are. Are northerners really gruff plain-speakers with cloth caps, pot bellies and whippets? And what about the men? It all adds up to a feast of northern hilarity not seen since the famous lock-in at the Rovers in '76 when it's rumoured Ena Sharples, sloshed on stout, showed Albert Tatlock what she kept underher hairnet. By.