Back in the Day: Melvyn Bragg's deeply affecting, first ever memoir

Melvyn Bragg's memoir is an elegiac and intimate account of growing up in post-war Cumbria, capturing a vanished world and the people and places that shaped him. It is a charming account of a lost era, full of details and often lyrical descriptions.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 416 pages
Publication date: 02 March 2023
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Melvyn Bragg's first memoir, an elegiac and intimate account of growing up in post-war Cumbria, vividly evokes a vanished world.

"The best thing he's ever written," exclaimed Rachel Cooke of the Observer. "What a world he captures here. You can almost smell it."

Richard Benson of the Mail on Sunday praised the memoir as "wonderfully rich, endearing, and unusual." He described it as a "balanced, honest picture" that provides a "charming account of a lost era, full of details and often lyrical descriptions of people and places."

Bragg's memoir takes readers back to his youth in the Cumbrian market town of Wigton. Growing up in a working-class family, he expected to leave school at fifteen but was granted a scholarship to Oxford University. Despite his early setbacks, Bragg found solace in books and spent his free time roaming the streets and raiding orchards with his gang of friends.

However, a breakdown in adolescence led him to seek refuge in literature, and he began to explore the world through the pages of books. Bragg's memoir is a poignant reflection on his journey from a working-class boy to a scholar and intellectual. He paints a vivid portrait of his community, the Lake District landscapes that inspired him, and the many remarkable people in his close-knit world.

Through his memoir, Bragg invites readers to relive a bygone era and to appreciate the values and traditions that shaped his childhood. He offers a glimpse into a world that has vanished, but one that remains deeply meaningful to him and his readers.

Weight: 290g
Dimension: 128 x 198 x 29 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781529394498