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Summary: Bill, You Really Told It!
Review: Forget ANGELA'S ASHES. THE ROAD TO NAB END is less bleak, it is witty and relieved by warmth and humor. The story of a city boy, born in the mill and growing up in grinding poverty is relieved by an unsentimental irreverence for conventional piety, enlivened by his forays into the gentle Lancashire countryside, the love of family and an impossible teenage romance.Bill Woodruff tells it as it was. I know because I was there. Although we both found our way to America, Blackburn of the 20's and 30's is indelibly printed on our souls.
Rating:
Summary: Bill, You Really Told It!
Review: Forget ANGELA'S ASHES. THE ROAD TO NAB END is less bleak, it is witty and relieved by warmth and humor. The story of a city boy, born in the mill and growing up in grinding poverty is relieved by an unsentimental irreverence for conventional piety, enlivened by his forays into the gentle Lancashire countryside, the love of family and an impossible teenage romance.Bill Woodruff tells it as it was. I know because I was there. Although we both found our way to America, Blackburn of the 20's and 30's is indelibly printed on our souls.
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Summary: Nab End Review
Review: Having been born and bred in Blackburn, my father was a tackler and mother was a weaver, this is one of the best books that I have read in a long time. I am quite a bit younger that the author, but the stories are so similar to what my parents told me it's incredible. It was a tough life, yet people got along and managed one way or another. I could read this book over and over again and I am looking forward to the sequel.
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Summary: The Road to Nab End
Review: I've found this book to be one of the most compelling books I've ever read.
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Summary: Deeply felt. Vividly told. One man's story speaks to us all
Review: It's a cliche to say "I couldn't put it down", but this time it's true. I found the book utterly enthralling and deeply moving, and not only because I grew up in Blackburn myself. It was written with passion, humour, commitment, and a wonderful eye and ear for remembered detail. This was no mere plodding blow-by-blow account of the author's childhood and youth; the memories were organised into thematic chapters, many of which could stand alone as sensitively crafted short stories in their own right - I think for instance of the intensely moving chapter about his visits to his maiden aunts in Bamber Bridge.At the same time, the book conveys with extraordinary immediacy the human, social and political reality of a crucial moment in our national history. Above all, like any work which concentrates on being intensely specific, it achieves the status of universality in its implications. The book was given to me as a Christmas present. Next Christmas, my friends and relations will be getting it - if I can wait till then to tell them about it.
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Summary: A memoir of hope
Review: The Road to Nab End describes the life of a boy growing up in an English mill town in the early years of the 20th century. Here comes to life a proud working-class family that struggles against unemployment and poverty. As they face hunger and eviction, they become resourceful: when they are freezing in bed, they add layers of newspaper, as well as all their clothes! A case of appendicitis is cured with hot bread poultices. The book preserves unforgettable vignettes of a life that might have been forgotten, and it does so with a great sense of humor. (...)
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Summary: If you have never been there, you now know it
Review: This is a wonderful book which, as an Anglophile, I loved reading. Just a word to those who feel it some of the terms are American. Remember, please, that the author is now living in the US, and new terms become automatically one's own after a while. And yes, there is a sequel to this book!
Rating:
Summary: If you have never been there, you now know it
Review: This is a wonderful book which, as an Anglophile, I loved reading. Just a word to those who feel it some of the terms are American. Remember, please, that the author is now living in the US, and new terms become automatically one's own after a while. And yes, there is a sequel to this book!
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Summary: Praise From A Lancashire Lass
Review: This story had a special significance for me as the author's hometown, Blackburn, is also my hometown. He was 7 years younger than my father although they attended the same school. However, I am certain the book will be enjoyed by many people who do not have that same personal connection.
It is beautifully written, with the historical content merging skillfully into the story of family life.
The book will be of particular interest to anyone who grew up in an industrial area, not just in Britain; to Americans and Canadians who can trace their families back to the mill-towns of Lancashire or Yorkshire; to anyone who finds the 1900-1930 period fascinating; to anyone who remembers their own family's struggles against adversity, and to anyone who enjoyed Angela's Ashes - but would prefer a more down-to earth story with fewer funerals!
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Summary: superb book-leaves you wanting more
Review: William Woodruff and I have something in common; we were both born and reared poor in Lancashire, doubly lucky as Mr Woodruff puts it. The book itself is a reader, you pick it up and you can't put it down. There is always something else you want to read in the next chapter. It is a shame the book had an ending to it as it leaves you wanting more. Like one of the other reviewers I was a bit disappointed when the text was dumbed down, probably for our American cousins, as little discrepancies showed through the text. For instance, stating ten pennies instead of ten pence (we would have said it 'tenpunce') and the absolute glaring mistake of calling a tanner 6p when it should have been 6d and a dodger is 3d not 3p. Little details like this tend to eat at me. The book was easy to read and if you know a little about Lancashire, specifically Blackburn, you will find it fascinating. Tim Brimelow 19 May 2003
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