FEW of us can resist a good list.

Mike Fox clearly understands that. And in Top 10 Of Yorkshire he has come up with lists galore for us to argue and bicker over round the kitchen table or down the pub.

There’s a top 10 prettiest villages in Yorkshire (Burnsall in Wharfedale beats Coxwold to second place in Fox’s opinion); a top ten state schools by A-level result (Heckmondwike Grammar); a top ten greatest cricketers (Sir Len Hutton); and a top ten famous people from every major town and city in the county, among a host of others in 250 packed pages of lists.

Fox’s judgement is often pretty suspect. The most famous person from York, he claims, is Anita Lonsbrough, the swimming gold medallist at the 1960 Olympics. She beats Guy Fawkes into second place, with poor old Joseph Rowntree a lowly seventh.

So this book will often have you spluttering into your pint. But then, that’s the whole point of it…