Whilst watching Game of Thrones, and having recently read Joe Abercrombie’s First Law series, a conversation with Amanda led to the observation that a lot of bad things seem to come from the North. Mr Martin’s Whitewalkers, Joe Abercrombie’s slavering Northmen, the hordes of the Shayol Ghul in Jordan’s Wheel of Time universe, right the way back to Mount Doom in Mordor on Tolkien’s Middle Earth.

The distant South is cold, too. What is it about fantasy writers that gives the North such a bad rep? Is this our North American/US-centric world view? Or just prejudice against the Scots/Canadians?