Coquetdale author releases book of tall tales and poetry about rural Northumberland

Richard Mason, of ground work and agriculture business, T. Mason & Son, wrote and published his first book ‘Where Ragged Rascals Ran’ in March 2022, retelling tales told to him by his father, Tom.

It included local dialect poetry, anecdotes of hilarious hi-jinks and plenty of illustrations, and since then, he has been collecting a plethora of stories to delight those who live in the valley.

Now, he is releasing his new 70-page book ‘Rund the Rugged Rocks’, containing more local dialect poetry by Allan Wood, Andrew Charleton, Richard and others. All proceeds will go to charities local to Coquetdale.

It includes anecdotes galore to jog the memories of the ‘oldies’ with plenty of photos as well as sketches and drawings by several artists in the valley. These all add to the charm of the book which is also a historical snapshot of life in rural Northumberland in the past few decades.

Richard said: “Throughout my life my dad, Tom, has telt me stories about the adventures he and his pals got up to over the years. I thought the time had come to make a second collection of those tales. It has been a quite a lark talking to Tom’s old friends, whittling photos and drawings out of them, and writing some of my own dialect poetry to add to the book.”

Rund the Rugged Rocks will be available from Soulsby toy shop in Rothbury at £9 per copy, or you can contact Richard via email at [email protected].