Quote of the day

"Look at our response to Thatcherism. The Smiths, Joy Division. Look at London's response: Spandau Ballet pretending to be pirates."

Stuart Maconie, whose new book 'Pies And Prejudice: In Search Of The North' partly occasioned this article in Sunday's Observer about the existence of a geographical North-South divide in terms of arts and culture.

The article's author Rachel Cooke suggests that the differing sensibilities of artists from North and South, and the differing ways in which art is received in North and South, should be celebrated - after all, it suggests that the insidious homogeneity that pervades our high streets hasn't triumphed in the cultural sphere.

Among those asked for their thoughts are Alan Ayckbourn, Simon Reade, Kate Jackson of The Long Blondes and Geoff Dyer. I loved Dyer's book about D H Lawrence, 'Out Of Sheer Rage', but that and his sneering reference to "the provinces" here makes me think of him as something of an A A Gill, and therefore eminently punchable...