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

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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. I think he was fortunate in being an only child in some ways because his parents were able to support his choices whereas they might not have been able to if there were a handful of other kids to care for. Melvyn is someone to admire and is always interesting to listen to, and there are many fascinating vignettes in this, but there's also a lot of direct speech which feels a bit hard to credit, and a lot of Romantic place-focused stuff which I found a bit dull. I feel like I know every nook and cranny, every little alleyway and footpath in Wigton yet I have never been to Cumbria let alone that town.

It's a rare thing to read about, especially these days, and that made the story all the more valuable and enjoyable.

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One of the generation of working- and lower middle-class children for whom a post-war grammar school education was the key to unlocking a future far beyond what their parents and grandparents had ever been able to aspire to, his impact on the cultural life of the UK from the Sixties until now has been immeasurable. At her 90th birthday lunch, Melvyn Bragg’s mother turned to her best friend and said, so loudly that everyone could hear: “I always wanted a girl. I’d have got into local government or gone down to the factory and worked in its accounts department or been a junior clerk. He was often moved to tears in his narration when reflecting and retelling certain special moments and I too wept as I listened . 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.

We work closely with publishers and authors to ensure that we offer the best books on the market for your child. Melvyn Bragg’s first memoir (Back In The Day: A Memoir, published 26 th May 2022) covers the period up to the moment when he left home for University in Oxford. Photograph: Louise Court/Melvyn Bragg View image in fullscreen Melvyn Bragg: ‘so often hits on something wise and even numinous’.

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. There’s little I could express except the same choked up feeling that roughens his voice as he tries to make it through the last word of the chapter before the wave of memory drowns him. Wigton's streets become soot-streaked theatre for a huge cast of town characters for whom the author shows a convincing, rather than patronising, affection . This book engaged me right from the start and I guess Melvyn’s childhood was not very much different to a lot of kids growing up during those years.I’d come home, have tea at about half past four and while my parents went down into the pub, I just worked and worked. Registered office address: Unit 34 Vulcan House Business Centre, Vulcan Road, Leicester, Leicestershire, LE5 3EF. 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. I was very touched with Bragg’s emotional candour which he cannot help but show, seeming to me to be crying/voice cracking as he describes his mother’s teaching the town girls country dancing. A book you dislike at the start can turn around and give you something very special and meaningful, something that speaks to you, something that you will be glad not to have missed!

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. One can compare Bragg with Karl Sagan - due both promoters of knowledge innate curiosity, extreme diligence and preparation as well as ability to poignantly uncover powerful truths with simple questions. But those who have no knowledge of Wigton will still be moved and entertained by the books’ depiction of a northern community in the 40s and 50s, and the development within it of an important figure in the cultural life of this country. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.

I didn’t appreciate this given the few hours of sunlight and the cold dreary weather I have had to deal with currently. a balanced, honest picture' Richard Benson, Mail on SundayIn 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. Prolific author, critic, historian, populariser of art, science and philosophy, broadcaster, politician and campaigner, and for more than twenty years, presenter of one of the jewels in the crown of the BBC, the weekly Radio 4 programme ‘In Our Time’, his commitment and enthusiasm for the examined life can be traced back to his roots in the north Cumbrian market town of Wigton. The notion even of Workington – a nearby town to which his parents at one point threaten to move – fills him with horror. Melvyn Bragg’s first ever memoir – an elegiac, intimate account of growing up in post-war Cumbria, which vividly evokes a vanished world.