IT WAS the book that slated Hull as the crappest of crap towns, the worst place to live in the UK and a festering dump floundering in social problems and economic decay.
And now, ten years on, the team behind Crap Towns is returning to dish out some more unsought opinions on the city's shortcomings.
Crap Towns Returns is due to be published in October but, this time, editor Sam Jordison says it may not be all bad news for Hull.
Sam, who visited Hull in 2003 to take part in a debate defending the book, said some anecdotal submissions to his website hinted that Hull has show signs of improvement in the past decade.
He said: "I think I can pretty safely say that Hull will not be top of the Crap Towns list this time.
"I can't tell where it will be but I think that title has been safely handed over.
"Last time we did the book there was a lot of things happening in Hull that really hurt its cause. It was doing really badly in lots of unwanted league tables for education and unemployment, things like that.
"To be fair, the reaction we got from the people of Hull was pretty good, considering some of the things we were saying about it weren't very nice.
"Everybody had a sense of humour about the book, which shows one of Hull's strengths is to be able to laugh at itself."
For the revamped 2013 edition, Sam added that recent announcements had helped mould a more positive image for the city.
"Definitely," he says. "We've been hearings some pretty positive things about Hull recently. Impressions of the city seem to be more upbeat than they were before.
"Don't get me wrong, though, it's got its fair share of negatives, too, which we won't be ignoring.
"A lot of our information comes from people who actually live in the city, we just compile it and pick out the funniest stories, so we don't have anything against Hull.
"I actually quite like the place."
The original Crap Towns book caused outrage when it was released in October 2003, placing Hull at the top of the league of country's worst places, beating Cumbernauld, Morecambe and Hythe, in Kent, to the top of the league of shame.
At the time, city leaders leapt to Hull's defence, arguing that, although the city had its problems the same as anywhere, it did have many positive qualities such as friendliness, affordable housing and a self-deprecating sense of humour.
Today Councillor Steven Bayes, Hull City Council's portfolio holder for visitor destination and cultural strategy, said he would be taking the book's release with "a pinch of salt".
"I think the people who live here will know that Hull isn't a crap town. The judges who put us into the last four of the City Of Culture competition certainly don't think we're a crap town.
"You've got to be a bit careful with these things that you don't give them any more credence than they deserve.
"Never mind crap towns, if there was a list of the 50 Crap Books, this would probably be in it."
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