The Road to Nab End: A Lancashire Childhood

(Paperback)

Available Formats

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

From his birth in 1916 (in the carding room of a cotton mill) until he ran away to London, William Woodruff lived in the heart of Blackburns weaving community. But after Lancashires supremacy in cotton textiles had ended with the crash of 1920, his father was thrown out of work. From then on, including the great depression of the 1930s, Woodruff and his family faced a life blighted by extreme poverty. Reading this book today, it is hard to comprehend that within living memory - and in what was the richest country in the world - so many people couldnt even afford to buy enough food. For the ordinary families of Lancashire, unemployment was an ever-present fear: "If you worked you ate. If there was no work you went hungry."

Reviews

Extraordinarily well written and vividly told, his book is rich in characters, facts, atmosphere, and indomitable spirit. It is absolutely fascinating as a social as well as a family history.--Eric Hobsbawm "Guardian "
Once started it is impossible to put this book down. The author is a born writer with an eye for character and a natural way of writing...he has the historian's gift for bringing to life a particular society at a particular time, which marks his book out.--Alan Bullock "Times Literary Supplement "