Books set in South Yorkshire that you should read

With its natural landscapes, vibrant towns and cities packed with culture, unique local characteristics and language and huge historical significance, it's no surprise that Yorkshire has been the inspiration and setting for some great novels over the past few hundred years.

Here are some recommendations of places to visit which have featured in classics and bestsellers.

Kes, Barry Hines

The 1968 book by Barnsley-born Barry Hines follows a day in the life of Billy Casper, a young boy in a Yorkshire mining town who finds solace from his troubled home and school life through his pet kestrel.

The book was adapted into a BAFTA winning film - Kes - by Ken Loach in 1969 and starred David Bradley.

The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota

Thirteen young men live in a house in Sheffield, each in flight from India and in desperate search of a new life, each with their own stories and secrets they’re trying to leave behind and dreams for the future.

This is Sunjeev’s highly-acclaimed second novel and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2015.

To Catch a Rabbit by Helen Cadbury

Two young boys stumble on a dead prostitute. She’s on Sean Denton’s patch. As Doncaster’s youngest community support officer, he’s already way out of his death, but soon he’s uncovering more than he’s supposed to know. Meanwhile Karen Friedman, professional mother of two, learns her brother has disappeared.

She desperately needs to know he’s safe, but once she starts looking, she discovers unexpected things about her own needs and desires. Played out against a gritty landscape on the edge of Doncaster, Karen and Sean risk losing all they hold precious.

The Northern Clemency, Philip Hensher

An epic chronicle of 20 years of British life from the Booker shortlisted and Granta Best of Young British novelist, Philip Hensher.

Beginning in 1974 and ending with the fading of Thatcher's government in 1996 The Northern Clemency is Hensher's epic portrait of an entire era.

Set in Sheffield, it charts the relationship between two families: Malcolm and Katherine Glover and their three children; and their neighbours, the Sellers family, newly arrived from London so that Bernie can pursue his job with the Electricity Board.

The day the Sellers move in there is a crisis across the road: Malcolm Glover has left home, convinced his wife is having an affair. The consequences of this rupture will spread throughout the lives of both couples and their children.

Bleak Water – Danuta Reah

Set in a Sheffield art gallery, for Elisa Eliot, the curator, the chance to show well-known artist Daniel Flynn’s work at the gallery is a coup. But when a young woman’s body is found in the canal, Flynn’s nightmare images begin to spill out into the real world.

The Missing Wife, Roget Silverwood

Lady Yvette, the beautiful wife of local MP Sir Charles Millhouse, is found choked to death in a reservoir. Her clothes and an antique pearl collar she usually wore are missing.

Within a short space of time another body is discovered, also choked to death. With no clues and little forensic evidence to go on, will quirky Yorkshire policeman Michael Angel's guile be enough to reveal the identity of the choker?

Silverwood’s series is set in Bromersley – a market town at the bottom of the Pennines. The town’s industry today includes the manufacture of ball bearings and whisky bottles, and a huge brewery produces Bromersley’s best bitter.

Two Caravans by Marina Lewyck a

The story centres on a group of migrant workers who hail from Eastern Europe, China, Malaysia and Africa travel from Kent to Sheffield, harvesting strawberries for delivery to the supermarkets.

Get Carter by Ted Lewis

Although the film, starring Michael Caine, is set in the North East, Lewis’ book is set in Doncaster. Jack Carter is home for his brother’s funeral. Jack thinks that Frank's death is suspicious and investigates. Frank was a mild man – Jack is not.