Melvyn Bragg was born in Wigton, Cumbria, in 1939. He went to the local Grammar School and then to Wadham College, Oxford. He joined the BBC in 1961, and published his first novel, For Want of a Nail, in 1965.He left the BBC and continued to write novels which include The Soldier's Return (WH Smith Literary Award), Without a City Wall (Mail on Sunday John Llewellyn Rhys Prize) and Now Is the Time (Parliamentary Book Award 2016). A Place in England, Son of War and Crossing the Lines were all nominated for the Booker Prize. His non-fiction includes The Adventure of English and The Book of Books, and his first memoir, Back in the Day, was published in 2022 to critical acclaim.He edited and presented The South Bank Show from 1977 and hosted the BBC Radio 4 programme In Our Time from 1998. He has now retired from both. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society and of The British Academy. He was given a Peerage in 1998 and a Companion of Honour in 2017.
A masterly evocation of his early life in Cumbria . . . Bragg's
book, the best thing he's ever written, imbues the overused
literary adjective "piercing" with real meaning . . . I can't hope
to capture, in the space I have here, this book's extraordinary
geography, let alone its strange, inchoate beauty: the way that
Bragg, in his struggle fully to explain his meaning, so often hits
on something wise and even numinous (when he does, it's as if a
bell sounds). All I can say is that I loved it
*Observer*
A childhood memoir bursting with affection and gruff love . . . a
charming account of a lost era, full of details and often lyrical
descriptions of people and places . . . If it sounds idealised, it
isn't. Bragg is clear-eyed about the 'harshness under the surface'
. . . a fascinating and often moving portrait of a time, a place
and a working-class boy who fell in love with words and made a
distinguished career out of using them extremely well.
*Sunday Times*
A moving portrait of a lost England . . . As a feat of dramatised
recollection Back in the Day is remarkable. The Boys' Own scrapes
and japes - an apple orchard raid, a gang hideout dug into a river
bank - come alive like set pieces from his beloved Jennings.
*Daily Telegraph*
Utterly captivating . . . [Bragg] bears his audience in mind, never
writing a dull or self-indulgent sentence and thinking about and
celebrating other people on every page . . . it's full of rapture
and the joy of everything . . . there are darker sides to the
story, and they too kept me gripped . . . Bragg is such a
persuasive writer, with such clear recall, that he even recreates
the excitement of a sixth-form English lesson. I got totally caught
up with his falling in love with learning and knowledge.'
*Daily Mail*
Wonderfully rich, endearing and unusual . . . a balanced, honest
picture . . .The smoky, damp and introverted world in which
livestock are still sold in the town centre, and horses are only
slowly ceding to motor cars, is brought to life with subtle skill.
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 . . . If any of our current political
leaders wants to create a vision that actually makes people want to
vote, they could do worse than prescribe this to their MPs as
required summer reading.
*Mail on Sunday*
Beautifully written, lyrical and romantic, touching and tender . .
. I enjoyed and admired it all.
*The Oldie*
Rawly truthful and engaging . . . There is a blissful absence of
cliché in this personal odyssey, which is at the same time a
fascinating essay in social history.
*i*
Disarmingly poignant . . . In other hands this tale would easily be
the stuff of cliché, except that Bragg fills every memory and
anecdote with both meaning and feeling . . . He has written some 40
books and this lovely memoir is surely the most affecting of them
all.
*New Statesman*
A wonderfully full and detailed picture of one particular place at
a particular time and an evocation of Melvyn Bragg's intense and
enduring involvement in it
*Michael Frayn*
A wonderful memoir . . . a truly great book about what it means to
come from somewhere, to be of a culture, to be cultured not in the
rarest but the most communal sense.
*Howard Jacobson*
He has an amazing memory for detail, but what shines through it all
is his love for the place and its people. That makes the book very
special.
*Ken Follett*
An extraordinary work - eloquent, charming, insightful, vivid,
touching, and a true work of literature
*Tony Palmer*
Exquisitely penned . . . a love letter to his youth and to those
who peopled it. A book you'll return to again and again.
*Sunday Post*
Melvyn Bragg is a broadcasting legend and an accomplished novelist
but this is his finest work and an instant classic. It's an
affecting and evocative account of his working-class upbringing in
the small Cumbrian market town of Wigton and a vivid Cider With
Rosie-style portrait of a particular place and time.
*Mail on Sunday*
Back in the Day paints a vivid and captivating picture of Bragg's
early childhood . . . Bragg's childhood, spent running madly about
the streets with his friends . . . is set against an unforgettably
affectionately drawn backdrop of kind but strict grown-ups who
laced the place with a sliver of fear . . . What is incredible is
that Bragg has written the memoir . . . completely from memory.
*Yorkshire Post*
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. It brims with beautifully observed details
*Guardian*
Affectingly tracing his ascent from working-class Wigton to
Hampstead intelligentsia, Bragg's first memoir is a homage to his
boyhood Cumbria - and to the golden era of social mobility which
gave him a leg up
*Daily Telegraph*
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