Back in the Day: Melvyn Bragg’s deeply affecting, first ever memoir
£10.99
Melvyn Bragg’s first ever memoir – an elegiac, intimate account of growing up in post-war Cumbria, which lyrically evokes a vanished world. In this captivating memoir, Melvyn Bragg recalls growing up in the Cumbrian market town of Wigton, from his early childhood during the war to the moment he had to decide between staying on or spreading his wings. This is the tale of a boy who lived in a pub and expected to leave school at fifteen yet won a scholarship to Oxford. Derailed by a severe breakdown when he was thirteen, he developed a passion for reading and study – though that didn’t stop him playing in a skiffle band or falling in love. It is equally the tale of the people and place that formed him.
Melvyn Bragg’s first ever memoir – an elegiac, intimate account of growing up in post-war Cumbria, which vividly evokes a vanished world.
‘The best thing he’s ever written . . . What a world he captures here. You can almost smell it’ Rachel Cooke, Observer
‘Wonderfully rich, endearing and unusual . . . a balanced, honest picture’ Richard Benson, Mail on Sunday
In this elegiac and heartfelt memoir, Melvyn Bragg recreates his youth in the Cumbrian market town of Wigton: a working-class boy who expected to leave school at fifteen yet who gained a scholarship to Oxford University; who happily roamed the streets and raided orchards with his gang of friends until a breakdown in adolescence drove him to find refuge in books.
Vividly evoking the post-war era, Bragg draws an indelible portrait of all that formed him: a community-spirited northern town, still steeped in the old ways; the Lake District landscapes that inspired him; and the many remarkable people in his close-knit world.
‘A charming account of a lost era, full of details and often lyrical descriptions of people and places . . . fascinating and often moving’ Christina Patterson, Sunday Times
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