The Soldier's Return

Melvyn Bragg

ISBN 10: 0340751002 / ISBN 13: 9780340751008

Published by Sceptre, 1999

About this Item

A fine copy of a highly acclaimed semi autobiographical account of the trauma of a returning soldier after World War II. SIGNED by author 3/2000. Cover and inner pages as new, some foxing in the end papers, slight curve on front top of jacket.

Seller Inventory # 2

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Soldier's Return
• Publisher: Sceptre
• Publication Date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0340751002
• ISBN 13: 9780340751008
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: As New
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • rare and signed books

About this title

Synopsis

When Sam Richardson returns in 1946 from the 'Forgotten War' in Burma to Wigton in Cumbria, he finds little has changed, as far as his own limited prospects go. In his absence, though, his young family has altered immensely. His wife Ellen has found a sense of self worth in her war time jobs, and doesn't want to return to her old life. Their six-year-old son Joe, accustomed to his mother's undivided love and attention, doesn't welcome the father he barely remembers. And Sam finds the traumatic scenes he witnessed in Burma have changed him too, making the confines of this working class Cumbrian town stifling. The result is a family in turmoil, which reaches breaking point when Sam resolves to emigrate to Australia.

Based on Melvyn Bragg's own family and strongly evocative of its era as well as the Cumbrian landscape, this taut and powerful novel sits firmly in the tradition of his hugely popular Cumbrian novels.

About the Author

Melvyn Bragg is a writer and broadcaster. His novels include The Hired Man, for which he won the Time/Life Silver Pen Award, Without a City Wall, winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, The Soldier's Return, winner of the WHSmith Literary Award, A Son of War and Crossing the Lines, both of which were longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, A Place in England, which was longlisted for the Lost Man Booker Prize, and most recently Grace and Mary. He has also written several works of non-fiction, including The Book of Books about the King James Bible. He lives in London and Cumbria.