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

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The best thing he’s ever written . . . What a world he captures here. You can almost smell it’ Rachel Cooke, Observer

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.— Michael Church, i 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 Suleyman became sultan in 1520, after the death of his father, Selim. Utterly ruthless in the pursuit of power, Selim had killed his brothers and nephews to gain control of the Ottoman Empire. He even tried to murder his own son with a poisoned robe. Suleyman was saved by his mother, who warned him just in time. An unfortunate servant who tried it on died instead.

Customer reviews

I really knew nothing about him before reading this and am reminded of the saying that “you can take someone out of a place but not the place it of them”. Whilst a home life living above a pub would not seem ideal for an elite student, this story proves that with the right support, you can achieve so much. Described by the publisher as a poignant elegy to a vanished era as well as the glories of the Lake District… it illuminates what made him the writer, broadcaster and champion of the arts he is today”. Beautifully written, lyrical and romantic, touching and tender . . . I enjoyed and admired it all.— Hunter Davies, The Oldie

The whole community took pride and pleasure in the author’s achievements and he gives us some insight into the challenge of “thinking” himself into the role of elite scholar. We see how the old boy network was very much a part of acceptance into Oxford. A greater part of the marks were given to the interview process rather than the exam results, thereby ensuring that intake was very much skewed in favour of public school pupils who would have had much broader life experience as the sons and daughters of wealthy parents. 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.— Michael Prodger, New Statesman There were so many hours to fill in each day without computers, mobile phones or TV. Walking, cycling, singing, dances, swimming, rugby all played a part in developing MB’s character and still left many hours free for study.Melvyn Bragg's first ever memoir -- an elegiac, intimate account of growing up in post-war Cumbria, which lyrically evokes a vanished world.