Melvyn Bragg for Back In The Day

Melvyn Bragg joins us for an evening at Christ Church for his first ever memoir – an elegiac, intimate account of growing up in post-war Cumbria, which lyrically evokes a vanished world.

In Back In The Day, Melvyn Bragg recalls growing up in the Cumbrian market town of Wigton, from his early childhood during the war to the moment he had to decide between staying on or spreading his wings. This is the tale of a boy who lived in a pub and expected to leave school at fifteen yet won a scholarship to Oxford. Derailed by a severe breakdown when he was thirteen, he developed a passion for reading and study – though that didn’t stop him playing in a skiffle band or falling in love.

It is equally the tale of the people and place that formed him. Bragg indelibly portrays his parents and local characters from pub regulars to vicars, teachers and hardmen, and vividly captures the community-spirited northern town – steeped in the old ways but on the cusp of post-war change. 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.

Join us for a wonderful evening with the much-loved writer and broadcaster, as he looks back and tells some remarkable stories from his life. 

Please note, this is now taking place in Christ Church on Julian Road.