Mark Hodkinson was born in a “modest, boxy” house in a Manchester suburb. There was one book in the house, kept on the top of a wardrobe with other revered items such as his cycling proficiency certificate. The book was Folklore, Myths and Legends of Britain, and Hodkinson writes that: “When I see the front cover again, an illustration of Cernunnos, the Celtic horned god, looking startled and irked … I fall through time.”
Hodkinson’s family moved to Rochdale in the mid-1970s, when he was 10, and he still lives there. He became not only a working-class reader – as per the subtitle of this book – but also a working-class publisher and writer too, which makes him a very rare bird.
