Derek Dodds – författare

Stretching almost 40 miles between the rivers Derwent, Tyne and Tees, and contained roughly by the Pennines to the west and the North Sea on the east, County Durham has retained a unique sense of identity and independence. For many centuries it was indeed a place apart, a territorial buffer against invading Scots. A sense of belonging and collective pride was born there and continued afterwards in the close-knit communities of the region’s more recent industrial past. Encompassing three great rivers, the Tyne, Wear and Tees, it has a landscape of great contrast and variety, a dramatic coastline, rugged moorland, dales and fells and the historic city of Durham. As well as age-old churches and castles, industrial monuments and museums, historic towns and villages, the region boasts world-class art and architecture and has a lively cultural scene.50 Gems of County Durham explores the many places and their history that make this part of the country so special, including natural features, towns and villages, buildings and places of historical interest. Alongside justly famous attractions, others will be relatively unknown, but all have an interesting story to tell.

Durham City is a remarkable place, a priceless historical gem and, deservedly, a World Heritage Site. Over 1,000 years Durham’s great beauty and history has inspired many architectural descriptions and guides. This book follows in their footsteps but then takes a different path. Wandering through the cathedral’s darkened cloisters, the city’s narrow medieval streets and the river’s winding pathways, Secret City of Durham is one man’s view of this famed peninsula – an occasionally quirky tour through history that looks beyond the iconic architecture and behind the fascinating jumble of city buildings. The author peels back their façades to reveal the bewildering changes and on the way points out the lesser-known facts and characters associated with them. What points the way to Durham Cathedral and St Cuthbert’s tomb and where can it be found? Who lived in Windy Gap? Why St Mary-the-’Less’? Secret City of Durham answers these fascinating questions and many more in a modern pilgrimage through the city.