04 Jul 2026
issue 04 July 2026
Comments
Andy Burnham must feel the burden of the sobriquet with which he has been saddled: King of the North. It is recognised as a joky reference to Game of Thrones, even though in that series and the novels by George R.R. Martin that inspired it, the title is King in the North.
The North has a reputation for being stern and hard, with moorlands and mountains and a harsh climate; a wall across the land protects it from alien dangers even further north. The people of the North stand out by their accents. All this is also true of Martin’s fantasy land.
