Longlisted for the Booker Prize

Deeply humane and acutely truthful Peter Kemp, Sunday Times

After the upheavals of the Second World War, the Richardson family Sam, Ellen and their young son Joe settle back to working-class life in the Cumbrian town of Wigton. Yet for them, as for so many, life will never be the same again. As the old order begins to be challenged and new vistas open, Sam and Ellen forge their future together with differing needs and desires - and conflicting expectations of Joe, who grows up with his own demons to confront.

It is as if these were the novels he was always waiting to write He catches brilliantly the volatility of emotions how happiness can curdle, anger flare, guilt build into terrror. Nicci Gerrard, Observer

A novel about being alive, the kind of slice-of-life novel that everyone feels they have inside them but few could write Brandon Robshaw, Independent on Sunday

This sequel to The Soldier's Return widely acclaimed as Melvyn Bragg s best novel is every bit as convincing and enjoyable This seems likely to become not only an outstandingly good series but one of the finest and most authentic records of the changes in English society, life and manners since the Second World War Allan Massie, Scotsman

Shot through with blazing integrity and authenticity Val Hennessy, Daily Mail