Set in Newcastle upon Tyne, Boy Parts is firmly rooted in the socioeconomic landscape of North East England and the UK’s persistent North-South divide. This long-standing disparity refers to the cultural and, particularly, economic gap between the affluent, London-centric South and the deindustrialized North. During the early 1980s, the global economic recession prompted the British government to favor the importation of cheaper heavy industry goods over domestic production. This led to the decline of key industries like coal mining and shipbuilding, which devastated regions such as the North East. This resulted in higher unemployment and lower public investment compared to the South. For example, data from the UK’s Office for National Statistics consistently shows a significant gap in economic output; London’s gross domestic product per head is being more than double that of the North East (“Regional economic activity by gross domestic product, UK: 1998 to 2023.” United Kingdom Office for National Statistics, Apr. 2025).

Clark, who hails from Newcastle, uses her novel to interrogate the biases and assumptions that people based in the South place on people who migrate from the North. In one article, she speaks about the irony that she is considered a “diverse” writer because of her North-East and working-class background: “I went from being in Newcastle, and being fairly privileged compared to lots of people, to going down to London and being like – ah no, I’m actually rough as arsehole” (Ashby, Chloë. “Eliza Clark: ‘I’m from Newcastle and working class. To publishers, I’m diverse.” The Guardian, July 2020). This context fuels the novel’s class tensions and the protagonist Irina’s sharp sense of social alienation. Her resentment is palpable when she confronts a group of wealthy men, dismissing one with a Geordie phrase for someone with superficial wealth: “Aal fur coat and nee knickers” (2). She identifies another as a “Home Counties transplant. A coloniser” (3), reflecting a local animosity toward affluent southerners perceived as displacing or looking down on northern culture. The novel also explores Irina’s experiences at Central Saint Martins, an elite London arts school where she finds herself constantly at odds with her well-connected, wealthy London-based peers. This culminates in her frustration over being connected to the Hackney Space gallery by one of her former school peers, undermining the merits of her work. By grounding Irina’s personal rage in this specific regional and class-based friction, Clark illustrates how broader national inequalities can shape individual psychology and discontent.