Yorkshire: A lyrical history of England's greatest county

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With the net tightening, the level of threat increases. Will Caslin, along with those closest to him, be the last victims of a forgotten conflict?

One of the most prolific and widely performed of English language playwrights and a highly regarded theatre director. He was the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, where he continues to premiere the majority of his work – predominantly in the world-famous Round auditorium. During the thirty years he spent in Hull, Larkin produced a significant body of poetry. In 2003, almost two decades after his death and despite controversy about his personal life and opinions, Larkin was chosen as “the nation’s best-loved poet” in a survey by the Poetry Book Society, and in 2008 The Times named Larkin as the greatest British post-war writer. Sylvia Plath (1932 – 1963) The American born poet, novelist and short story writer, described Heptonstall as ‘wild and lonely and a perfect place to work’, and at least one of her poems (November Graveyard) seems to refer to it. Sylvia responded to Haworth and the Brontë legacy in several poems written after walking the area. Yorkshire playwrightsThe Yorkshire Dales are peaceful and fairly crime-free and yet the area has somehow inspired a myriad of crime-writers. Susan Parry lives in Swaledale which she uses as her setting for her series of mysteries, peppered with local details such as details of lead-mining in the past. From Winstead, near Hull, Andrew Marvell is said to be one of the 17th century’s great metaphysical poets. His best known piece of work being the poem, To His Coy Mistress. Ted Hughes (1930 – 1998) DI Nathaniel Caslin is stable for the first time in years. Now he can look to the future, or so he thought. Granting a small favour to a friend can often be anything but simple.... Sheep farmer, Amanda Owen is continuing the tradition of documenting and recounting farming life in the Yorkshire Dales with The Yorkshire Shepherdess and A Year in the Life of the Yorkshire Shepherdess. Neil Hanson gives a completely different insight into life in the Dales with The Inn at the Top, his account of thetrials and tribulations of life as the landlord at Tan Hill, England's Highest Inn.

This Barnsley born author wrote the 1968 novel A Kestrel for a Knave, on which the 1969 Ken Loach film Kes was based, he also co-wrote the script with Loach and Tony Garnett. Both the book and the film provide a portrait of life in the mining areas of Yorkshire. He also wrote two other collaborations with Loach which were adapted into films:The first three full-length books in this best-selling series are brought together for the first time in this great value set.

I wonder if there's something about the area around Settle and the Three Peaks because it's also inspired another thriller, The Penyghent Blood by Roger Ratcliffe. Many authors have given their accounts of life in the Yorkshire Dales. Some have become so loved, their works have become collectors' items and much-prized social history. WR Mitchell, or Bill as many knew him, was prolific. He loved people and their stories, and spent much of his life interviewing and collecting tales which give some marvellous insights. Yorkshire represents a time gone by, captured in a fascinating collection of interviews he conducted. His Folk Tales on the Settle-Carlisle Railway remains a popular volume. You can listen to some of his interviews thanks to this archive and the work of Settle Stories . As the years passed and the Ripper’s tally of victims edged upwards and began to embrace women other than sex workers – and with the police seemingly at sea – David lost his initial excitement and began to fear for his mother’s life, begging her not to leave the house. “My sister used to say her prayers out loud every night, and she would always say, ‘Dear God, please don’t let the Ripper kill my mum,’” Peace told the Guardian in 2001. “Because of the way she was, she’d have to say it 10 times. If she lost count, she’d have to start again. It did my head in.” DI Nathaniel Caslin is in conflict with his inner demons. His career is resurgent, but the greater battle, that with his addiction, is still raging...and he is losing. Peace has always been clear that his books have a moral force. “The majority of British crime novels are a nonsense,” he said in 2010. “The Crime Writers’ Association has an award for a comic crime novel. How absurd to create this false picture of what reality is. Crime is not cosy, but brutal and destructive. It devastates people’s lives.”Peace’s readers will note that the television series has an infinitesimally happier ending than the books do. The scriptwriter Tony Grisoni explained: “It was an emotional reaction … to two and a half years of being in this inferno that David Peace had constructed. David doesn’t save anyone. Whereas I needed to.” Anne, Charlotte and Emily are known worldwide due to their passionate literary classics. Born in Thornton, Bradford, they later moved to Haworth where the majority of their work was written and where you can find the Parsonage Museum. The trio wrote their initial works under pen names due to the misogynistic nature of the publishing industry at the time. The three sisters were not the only Brontë sisters as they had older sisters Elizabeth and Maria, who both unfortunately died before reaching adulthood. Charlotte Brontë (1816 -1855) DI Nathaniel Caslin’s life is a mess. He works the minimum, abuses substances to survive the day, and drinks his nights away. A once-promising career is in freefall. This was probably because it followed too closely the rhythms of the standard TV crime drama, especially in its focus on Toby Jones’s dogged and capable cop DCS Dennis Hoban. With his Tetley Tea Folk accent and fondness for Emmerdale Farm, Hoban was a thoroughly reassuring presence, fulfilling the familiar TV role of the dedicated detective who will ensure that justice is done in the end.