A Place in England (Paperback, New Ed)

This is one of the earliest of Bragg's novels, originally published in 1970. Along with The Hired Man and Kingdom Come it forms part of his Cumbrian trilogy. The story deals with the life of Joseph Tallentire, a normal, uneducated boy who wants more than fate has given him. It opens with his life in service as a teenager and charts his time in the RAF during the Second World War and how he settles back into village life in Thurston after the war. Throughout this unusual novel, the narration shifts between members of the Tallentire family. The reader sees into the minds of Betty, the wife and mother of the family who is frustrated with her life and her husband, and Douglas and Harry (Betty and Joseph's sons) as they take very different routes towards happiness. Bragg looks at men from three generations of the family, showing how life has changed for the working class of Cumbria during the course of the 20th century. The novel is not always easy to read, as characters often slip into local dialect and the stream-of-consciousness passages are demanding. It is, however, very rewarding and full of humour, sadness and unvoiced frustrations. The scenes in Joseph's pub seem particularly true to life and are all the more funny and frightening because of this. The book has lost none of its charm or relevancy. The descriptions are beautiful, the characters humorous and the situations poignant. An excellent, intelligent novel. (Kirkus UK)

Joseph Tallantire has hope and ambition - like his father before him he is determined to make something of himself and improve his lot. But life is not easy for an uneducated young man in Cumberland before and during World War II, and Joseph's struggle against the odds is the subject of this moving and evocative novel. Suffering hardship and humiliation but eventually achieving a position of some independence, Joseph serves as a tribute to the many like him who lived through one of Britain's periods of greatest social change.

General

Imprint:	Sceptre
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Release date:	December 2001
Authors:	Melvyn Bragg
Dimensions:	196 x 128 x 20mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback - B-format
Pages:	256
Edition:	New Ed
ISBN-13:	978-0-340-77092-4
Categories:	Books > Fiction > General & literary fiction > Modern fiction
LSN:	0-340-77092-9
Barcode:	9780340770924

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