We Mak'em: Sunderland By Heart, Local Secrets, Honest Stories & the Year the Lads Went to Europe
My dad has never once said he's proud of this city. He just never left it.
He was at Roker Park in October 1973 when Sunderland played in Europe for the first time. He was 26. On Wednesday night he'll be at the Stadium of Light when they do it again, 53 years later, and I'll be walking him over the Keel Crossing to get there, because halfway across it he'll stop to read the names of the ships he worked on.
That's this book. Not a guide. Not a top ten. A city told by someone who was born in it, left it at 18 when the yards shut, stayed away for thirty years, and came back in 2022 to look after the man who taught him all of it.
What you get
The coast, properly. Which stretch of Roker prom to stand on when the pier lamp comes on, the walk from Whitburn to the lighthouse that tourists turn back from at the wrong bit, the Seaburn rules, and the piece of Hendon beach nobody bothers with.
Penshaw at half six on a Sunday morning, and why that's the only time to do it.
Food the way it's actually eaten here. Where a stottie costs what a stottie should cost, where it doesn't, ice cream at Seaburn, pease pudding, and the one Sunday dinner my dad would drive across the city for.
The 1973 chapter. Wembley, Stokoe, Roker Park under the floodlights, told by a man who was in the Fulwell End and still does the soup bit every time.
What's changed since you left. Keel Square, the Fire Station, Culture House, the bridge, Sheepfolds, and an honest word on what hasn't changed and what got worse.
The honest movers' chapter. Every part of the city, from Ashbrooke to Southwick to Ryhope, written for people thinking of moving here or moving back, with the bits letting agents don't say out loud.
A Mackem glossary. Why we're called it, why it's Ha'way and not Howay, and what you'll get called if you get that wrong.
The spot. One place on the coast my dad took me to that I'm not putting on Facebook, with exact directions and the time of day it works.
Free updates for life
This city is changing faster this year than it has in decades. Every time something in the book changes, a place shuts, a walk gets rerouted, you get the new edition sent to the same email you bought it with. No extra cost. Forever.
Who it's for
Anyone who was born here and stopped seeing it. Anyone who left and can't stop calling it home. Anyone moving here who wants the real version before they sign anything. And anyone with a dad, or a grandad, who tells the same story four hundred times, and who'd like it written down before they can't.
Instant digital download. Read it on your phone, tablet or laptop tonight. No postage, no waiting, no faff.
We mak'em. We always did.