The journalist turned PR consultant Bernard Ginns held a launch event for his first book at The Grove Bookshop in Ilkley.

Outcast: Cook versus the City tells the true story of maverick Yorkshire industrialist Andrew Cook who fights back against the City of London and media establishment to protect the manufacturing company founded by his Victorian forefathers from a raiding party backed by powerful financial institutions.

Outcast is “a gripping true-life takeover drama” according to The Spectator’s business editor Martin Vander Weyer while Andrew Bounds of the Financial Times called it “a rollicking read”. The LoveReading recommendations website has listed Outcast among the “Indie Books We Love”.

The launch event was presented by Greg Wright, deputy business editor of The Yorkshire Post and a resident of Ilkley, and attended by family and friends. It featured a reading, question-and-answer session and book signing by the author.

Bernard said: “It was wonderful to be able to celebrate the launch of Outcast with family and friends at my favourite bookshop. The book is getting great feedback from readers, especially those in the business community.”

Bernard Ginns is the director of Branksome Partners, a specialist PR firm based in Burley in Wharfedale, and a former national and regional newspaper journalist. He wrote Outcast during the pandemic. It is based on archives, diaries and unpublished memoirs of Sir Andrew Cook CBE, chairman of Sheffield-based William Cook Holdings.

Signed copies are available at The Grove Bookshop while stocks last. Outcast is also available to order at amazon.co.uk.

The Grove Bookshop is one of the North’s best-known independent bookshops and has been selling books in the pretty spa town of Ilkley for more than 40 years. It holds regular events with authors and is the official bookseller for the Ilkley Literature Festival.