A regional daily sports editor has swapped match reports and transfer gossip for trains, history and humour in a new book about his native patch.

Western Daily Press sports editor Keith Watson has penned Metroland, a travelogue based around the Tyne and Wear Metro rail network.

In the book, Sunderland born Keith mixes observations on life with history, sport and humour, using the 60 stations on the system as the basis for each chapter.

Although a native North-Easterner, Keith has spent his entire 21-year career in journalism working in Gloucestershire, Bristol and just over the Severn in Newport.

Said Keith: “First and foremost, the book is framed around the Metro stations, but it is also about the people, places and history of the area.

“I’m not a historian or a sociologist, a political aficionado or architectural expert, I’m a newspaper sports sub-editor by trade, so this book is not intended to be an in-depth dive into particular topics, it’s just a snapshot in time, not an exhaustive study.

“I’d like to think I’m reasonably well-placed to write about the whole region as I’m from Sunderland, but I know Newcastle very well too.

“The Newcastle-Sunderland rivalry, a lot of people see it as a massive divide, but I know from personal experience that Geordies and Mackems mix a lot more than some people would have you believe, and even the most diehard football fan of one persuasion or the other is probably glad deep down that the other side is there just so they can dislike them.”

During his trip around the Metro network, Keith delves into the past with the Venerable Bede and William the Conqueror, discovers ‘fart lamps’, and remembers when regional TV presenter Dawn Thewlis threw a bucket of cold water over him.

He also visits the field where Alan Shearer learned to kick a football, and looks back at the careers of top athletes Brendan Foster and Steve Cram.

Explaining how the book came together, Keith added: “I visited each Metro station and walked around the surrounding areas. In addition to what I saw, I also researched the history of each area, mediaeval and more modern.

“Some chapters have more obvious points of discussion, such as the city centre stations of Newcastle and Sunderland or the other big built-up areas, but even the quieter stations have some interesting social history to uncover, and because I am writing about the area I grew up in, there are also plenty of personal memories.”

* Metroland – The people, places and history encountered via the Tyne & Wear Metro is available to pre-order from https://www.a-love-supreme.com/product-page/metroland priced at £10.