THERE are any number of books of great photography which focuses on Yorkshire. Chances are, however, that you won't have seen one quite like Charlotte Graham's.

Most such books celebrate Yorkshire's landscapes. And why wouldn't they? We have some of the most dramatic and varied countryside anywhere in the country. And there's always something new to reveal about it. Yorkshire's landscapes seem particularly susceptible to the seasons and the weather, changing mood as the light advances or retreats, or as the sun breaks through cloud.

Charlotte isn't a landscape photographer, however. She's a freelance news photographer. And given that news is usually about people, her photos are about people, too.

There's a wonderful gallery of them in her new book Yorkshire: A Celebration. A fell-runner grimaces, his face lined with exhaustion, as he heaves up a long slope near Kilnsey; a farmer peeks from behind a giant pumpkin at an autumn flower show, just his eyes and his trilby visible; a pie-eater raises his arm in triumph in a crowded bar while his defeated opponent appears to bow before him.

They're great photographs all. And each one tells a story; of triumph, of struggle, of mischief.

Charlotte's book is subtitled 'A Year in Photographs'. and that is just what is is, she admits. A selection of the best news photographs she took over the last year.

That means there are some seriously good photographs in her book. Based in Huddersfield, her work appears regularly in the Telegraph, The Times, The Guardian - and, of course, the York Press.

She reckons she must cover 50,000 miles a year across the north of England in pursuit of the best pictures she can get. And her position as an established news photographer means she has access to people, places and events most people just don't get.

"I can get behind the scenes to see things that other people don't get to see,2 she admits.

That privileged viewpoint is apparent in many of her photos, such as her atmospheric come-up of the York Minstrels on may Day, dancing against a darkening sky as the sun sets redly in the distance; or her shot of two glaziers high up on scaffolding at York Minster, snapped in the moment they replace some of the priceless stained glass in the cathedral's Great East Window.

Don't expect any grim crime scene photos, however. The photographs she's gathered here aren't about murder, blood and death - too often the staple of news. "The photographs are all about the nice stuff that goes on," she says. "They're about the photography, and about the people of Yorkshire."

As a news photographer, she gets to meet many of the great and the good as she goes about her daily business. Her photographs don't focus on them, thankfully: they celebrate instead the ordinary people of Yorkshire going about their lives. But she did call in a few favours from one well-known 'celebrity': persuading the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, to write a forward.

"I asked him if he would do, and he looked at me and said 'Why?'" Charlotte recalls. "I said 'because I like you!' and he looked at me and said 'Good job I like you, too'."

Dr Sentamu did indeed write the forward to her book: and he's done her proud. Charlotte, he admits, is one of the Yorkshire people he admires: plain-speaking, friendly, and passionate about the county she loves.

"It is a true joy to see the world not only through the lens of her cameras, but also through her eyes," he writes. "Through the photographs... in this book, you see Yorkshire from Charlotte's perspective.

"Each picture portrays a single moment in time, and yet as a collection, they show us life in Yorkshire."

That is precisely what they do. And it is life that is very much worth celebrating...

Yorkshire: A Celebration - A Year in Photographs by Charlotte Graham is published by Amberley priced £16.99.

It is available from good local bookshops, or direct from Charlotte's own website www.charlottegraham.photography