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

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Most purchases from business sellers are protected by the Consumer Contract Regulations 2013 which give you the right to cancel the purchase within 14 days after the day you receive the item. In his new memoir, a book I was about to have to put aside for a few moments, Melvyn Bragg was describing the funeral of his publican father, Stanley, in Wigton, Cumbria, some time in the 1990s.

I really enjoyed this book particularly as I lived in Wigton for most of my early life (although it was in the 50's and 60's so some years after those in the book) and attended the same schools and knew many of the people and places described.Bragg is ten years my senior so his experiences of growing up in the war years, and being a teenager in the 50s were relatable, especially as my brothers were that much older than me. Into this perspective flash vividly drawn Wigton characters, such as the unfortunate Andrew, or Melvyn’s main mentor at The Nelson School, Spitfire pilot and then History teacher, Jimmie James (died 2020), to whom he pays a wonderful tribute. I have always been aware of his fame and popularity in our little town but not untill I read / listened to this do I feel I really know him as a man . This wonderfully authentic and often moving account of Bragg's childhood up to the time he leaves for university, is a heartfelt celebration of family life in a working-class community during the 1940s and 50s.

However, I am glad that I persisted because once Bragg's family move into the Blackamoor Pub, there is a vibrancy and warmth that pervades throughout the book. I didn’t want the story to end and felt the emotion as the narrator said a farewell (but not a final goodbye) to Wigton. This is a really good book and especially good that the author is narrating himself, there are times when he is clearly very emotional and this adds very much to the impact of the story.

Melvyns words carried me back to a Wigton of my own fathers time , growing up myself in Tenters only yards from the Blacky pub I felt a real connection with the places and people Melvyn spoke so fondly of .

I swotted because I found that, when I was in this terrible state, if I read difficult books, I couldn’t think about anything else for that period of time. I also went to a grammar school in the industrial north of England and from there was able to earn a place at Oxford (but no scholarship for me) taking me to an experience and subsequent life beyond anything my parents ever had the opportunity to enjoy themselves.

But no Enid Blyton for us), The Goon Show on the radio (we listened to The Navy Lark, Educating Archie and Hoirney into Space, but these were a little later).

With a gentle voice, Lord Bragg presented recollections of his early life in Wigton, a delight to hear. just touching the 50s but no memories beyond a couple of photographs of me in an enormous pram outside our front door) and its a gem. Our team is made up of book lovers who are dedicated to sourcing and providing the best books for kids. An only child, he went to the local grammar school and had the opportunity to stay on in 6th form, supported by his parents, when almost all his peer group left to start work. The really fascinating part is the portrait of Wigtown, his Cumbrian home town that was such a tight community,; his family were right at the heart of this, as his parents ran a pub, and were active in the local Labour Party and in sporting activities.

Most people are too weary, and too broke, to be happy in an unbridled way: every home has at least one lodger; every house has a thousand jobs that need doing. Bragg and his mother, Ethel, were just coming out of the church, trailed by a great crowd of mourners because Wigton isn’t big and everyone in it had known Stanley.