Spanish Art in County Durham edited by Clare Baron and Andy Beresford (Auckland Castle Trust Trading, £16)

THIS is a sumptuous book produced by Auckland Castle, Bowes Museum and Durham University to commemorate the extraordinarily rich collection of Spanish largely religious art that has ended up in County Durham.

As well as telling the stories of the paintings, it tells of the venues in which they are hung and the men who collected them.

So we meet Bishop Richard Trevor, the man who spent £8,000 improving Auckland Castle and its park in the late 18th Century, building the Deer House for his picnics and creating “pineries” on his south-facing slopes in which to grow pineapples for his picnickers – pineapples being the most expensive, exotic and extravagant fruit of the day.

It was Trevor who acquired the famous 13 Zurbaran paintings that in his day formed a powerful political statement of tolerance as he built a gallery at Auckland Castle to house them – those Zurbarans, 250 years after their arrival in County Durham, are now at the centre of the rebirth of the Castle.

Less well known is that Bishop Trevor acquired a similarly huge set of apostles which he also displayed in Auckland Castle. His successor, Bishop Shute Barrington, appears to have thought there were a couple of lifesized Spanish paintings too many in the castle, and moved the apostles to Durham Castle, where they remain.

Even less well known is that a second set of Spanish apostles, now in the Dean and Chapter Library in Durham Cathedral, was acquired during Bishop Trevor’s time. His motives for acquiring so many Spanish paintings is unclear – perhaps he just liked them, or perhaps someone on his staff had an in with the military men who had plundered Spain at the start of the 18th Century.

Other Durham country homeowners also collected Spanish paintings in Rokeby, Ushaw and even our own Windlestone, although none were as dedicated as John and Josephine Bowes. They collected 15,000 items of continental art in 12 years – rarely paying more than £10 for a piece – and when their museum in Barnard Castle opened in 1892, they had 76 Spanish paintings. By contrast, the National Gallery in London had a mere 20.

These disparate collections are now coming together so that unexpectedly Durham, in the North-East of England, finds itself as the centre of the world of Spanish art.

Voices from Labour’s Past – Ordinary People Extraordinary Lives, by David Clark (Lensden Publishing, £16.99)

THE author was the MP for South Shields for more than 20 years, and a member of Tony Blair’s first cabinet in those heady days of 1997. Now Lord Clark of Windermere, he joined the Labour Party in 1959 and became fascinated by the older party members who had pioneered the movement during the differently heady days of the First World War. He had the foresight to interview them, and here he presents the fascinating life stories of eight of them.

None is more fascinating than Connie Lewcock, born with such a rebellious streak in Lincolnshire in 1894 that she scandalised her small hometown by smoking in public – women didn’t do that.

Her life changed at 14 when she heard a suffragette speak, and when she got her first job as a teacher in Esh Winning, near Durham City, she cycled round the coalfield, whipping up support for the Independent Labour Party (ILP).

She was on the militant wing of her movement – she knew Emily Davison, who killed herself beneath the king’s horse, and Connie tried unsuccessfully to burn down Durham station as a statement. Undeterred, she persuaded a male friend to burn Esh station and leave clues that obviously incriminated her at the scene – hairpins and a handkerchief with C on it – although she was at a public meeting a mile away with an audience of alibis.

Connie, who died in 1980, called this “the perfect crime”, although she never went through with her big one: dynamiting Durham Cathedral. She planned it, though, with explosives stolen from a pit and expertise learned from miners.

She told Dr Clark: “I considered it and I thought that it would not be a good idea because I’d blow myself up.” When Dr Clark asked her if she would have gone through with it if she could have escaped, she replied: “Yes.”

But, 60 years after planning the crime, she added: “I’m thankful that I didn’t do it now.”

Instead, she became the organiser of the Cleveland ILP, and got herself arrested and fined £5 in Guisborough for making an inflammatory speech.

Her politics became more conventional in later life – she was awarded an OBE in 1966 for a lifetime of public service – and it is extraordinary to hear her, and the seven other northern pioneers, speaking three decades after she died.

Chris Lloyd is repeating his new talk, A Year in Darlo, to launch his new book, Darlington in 100 Dates, in Darlington library on Thursday – which is World Book Day.

The talk premiered last Saturday to a full house – which may have had something to do with Mrs Memories’ excellent homemade biscuits – so now the second date has been arranged. The talk is free and starts at 6pm. To reserve a place, please call 01325-462034. Everyone is very welcome.

The book, published by The History Press at £7.99, is available from Waterstones in Darlington’s Cornmill Centre and online at Amazon.