When, in The Soldier's Return, Sam Richardson comes home to a small
town in the far north-west of England from the abominations of war
in Burma it is not, as he expects, to an old life, but a different
one; not just to his wife Ellen, but a son, Joe who in his absence
has grown into a small boy - and a stranger. Vague aspirations
towards fundamental change in faraway Australia, vetoed by an
alarmed Ellen whose roots have not been disturbed by the war and
flicker and fade. Resignedly Sam accepts what he believes to be his
inevitable heritage: cheap, uncomfortable, living-accommodation and
low paid, repetitive work in the local paper-mill. But Ellen's
satisfaction with the status quo cannot entirely demolish the new
feeling of restlessness those serving overseas brought back with
them. She and Sam, almost subconsciously, take tentative steps
towards 'bettering themselves' and though Sam his initially
expected his son's future to mirror his own, and his ancestors'
past, he slowly recognises that it is not inevitable; and as the
'fifties gather momentum the reader begins to see the world opening
up if not to his parents, at least to Joe; though as he approaches
puberty Joe has his own problems of diminishing confidence,
psychological confusion, deep-seated, inexplicable fears to face
and conquer, and a new 'self' to recognise and accept. When the
last page is turned, the reader is already looking forward eagerly
to the third instalment of the Richardson's lives, especially that
of Joe's generation. This novel, about 'ordinary' people, set in a
very distinctive part of Britain, minutely, lovingly and
perceptively observed by Melvyn Bragg, who was brought up in the
area, gives a reality and a truth to his characters. Given the
hindsight of half-a-century's later history we can guess at some of
the things which might happen to them - but not their reactions to
the social and - especially - technical revolutions which await
them. (Kirkus UK)
Few books have made a greater impact, political as much as
literary, than Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western
Front, perhaps the most famous of anti-war novels. Startling in its
realism, moving in its humanity and banned and burned in Germany by
the Nazis, it was an international publishing sensation. But who
was Erich Maria Remarque? While the title of his masterpiece has
entered the language as a catch-phrase, its author is virtually
forgotten. In this biography, Hilton Tims attempts to reveal a man
whose life was one of the most romantic and anguished of the 20th
century.
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