" My tenth birthday was celebrated in northern England, almost within hailing distance of the Irish Sea. Chaddy Ashworth, the green-grocer’s son, helped me eat the birthday cake, with the ten burnt currants on its buttered top. As old Bill Scroggs was wont to boast: “Hadield was in the right proper place, it being in the best shire in the Kingdom. Darby-shir (Derbyshire) is where Mr...