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Nab End #1
The Road to Nab End: An Extraordinary Northern Childhood
The Road to NAB END An Extraordinary Northern(A Lancashire) Childhood [Hardcover] Woodruff, William
407 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1993
About the author
William Woodruff
40 books19 followersWilliam Woodruff was born in 1916 into a family of Blackburn, Lancashire cotton workers. At 13 he left school and became a delivery boy in a grocer's shop. In 1933, with bleak prospects in the north of England, he decided to try his luck in London and migrated to the filth and squalor of the East End. Then in 1936 with the encouragement of a Jesuit priest and the aid of a London County Council Scholarship he went to Balliol College, Oxford. There he became an idealistic undergraduate who mingled with George Woodcock and Harold Wilson. During the Second World War he fought in North Africa and the Mediterranean region as a major and then a colonel. All these experiences formed the basis of a series of memoirs, including The Road to Nab End, originally published as Billy Boy, and Beyond Nab End, which emerged only years later.
After the war, he turned down the chance of a political career in favour of academia. He was lured to Harvard on a scholarship and remained in America teaching economic history in Illinois, Princeton and Florida, until he was 80. 61 published titles - hardbacks, softbacks and translations - bear his name.
After the war, he turned down the chance of a political career in favour of academia. He was lured to Harvard on a scholarship and remained in America teaching economic history in Illinois, Princeton and Florida, until he was 80. 61 published titles - hardbacks, softbacks and translations - bear his name.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 92 reviews
November 16, 2023
The paperback copy that I am reading aloud to Simon originally belonged to his dad. We are reading it together and reminiscing on his early years, as, like the author, he grew up in Lancashire.
Finished reading on 6/26/24 - will add more later.
Favorite quotes:
"In our street everybody knew everybody else's business: who was sick, who was well; who was richer, who was poorer; who had 'got on,' and who had 'gone wrong.'"
During the influenza epidemic help came in the form of "a good Samaritan woman who walked in off the street" when she learned that their mother and older sister, Jenny, were sick. "For two or three weeks, she shopped and cooked and fed the whole family and kept the house clean until mother and Jenny could get back on their feet. Then, unpaid, she left as mysteriously as she had come and was never seen by us again." I found this extraordinary!
Sadly, this sounds very familiar in modern times: "The bosses did what they liked. They kept those they wanted and throwout those they didn't. Hours were increased, wages cut. The factory owners had never shared the good times with us. When there was cake, they ate it; when there was sorrow, they lumped it onto us."
"They were Lancashire folk: active, tough, resourceful.They were always cheerful."
I loved learning about his paper round as a lad, which I found fascinating:
"I had no difficulty knowing which paper went where. Labour people took the Herald or News Chronicle, conservatives the Mail or the Telegraph, liberals the Guardian, the toffs took The Times."
"A switch in newspaper usually meant a switch in political allegiance. I knew how my customers would vote."
"Im bad weather, the kind-hearted awaited my arrival with a cup of tea and a bun." How delightful!
However, "The not so kind angrily waved the paper in my face as if I were responsible for the success of Labour at the polls, or the assassination of the head of a foreign state."
"One thing I did learn was never to give a man the wrong paper. You've no idea how touchy some people can be. They'd bawl me out as if I'd permanently committed them to the wrong religion."
Mr. Grimshaw, a consummate salesman could sell anything to anyone. One time someone came into his shop looking for a Christmas gift for a relative and he said, "I can think of no better Christmas present than a chest of tea. Think of the cheer it will bring. Think with what gratitude they will remember you daily." They bought several chests of the stuff.
In 1929-1930, there was a world depression going on and the cotton industry was hit hard. "At the workers' expense everything was done to keep the industry alive: wages were cut, the hours of work increased."
As things went from bad to worse, "armed with a sledgehammer, father earned a few pounds smashing looms that earlier he had tuned with all the skill of a piano-tuner."
"A hundred years earlier in Lancashire they'd hung people for smashing the first power looms. Now they paid them to do it."
About riding around the countryside on a motorcycle: "Several times we had to stop for a shepherd and his flock. The bleating tide of bobbing black and white heads swept around us and held us in its grip. The smell of sheep and dust settled on us like a heavy mist. It took a couple of collies to get us free."
Finally, "The Lancashire I had known was a long story of broken work and broken pay; of being overworked or having no work at all; of being paid so badly that the whole family had to work or nobody ate; with only a narrow margin separating us from sinking altogether." Hard times indeed.
Finished reading on 6/26/24 - will add more later.
Favorite quotes:
"In our street everybody knew everybody else's business: who was sick, who was well; who was richer, who was poorer; who had 'got on,' and who had 'gone wrong.'"
During the influenza epidemic help came in the form of "a good Samaritan woman who walked in off the street" when she learned that their mother and older sister, Jenny, were sick. "For two or three weeks, she shopped and cooked and fed the whole family and kept the house clean until mother and Jenny could get back on their feet. Then, unpaid, she left as mysteriously as she had come and was never seen by us again." I found this extraordinary!
Sadly, this sounds very familiar in modern times: "The bosses did what they liked. They kept those they wanted and throwout those they didn't. Hours were increased, wages cut. The factory owners had never shared the good times with us. When there was cake, they ate it; when there was sorrow, they lumped it onto us."
"They were Lancashire folk: active, tough, resourceful.They were always cheerful."
I loved learning about his paper round as a lad, which I found fascinating:
"I had no difficulty knowing which paper went where. Labour people took the Herald or News Chronicle, conservatives the Mail or the Telegraph, liberals the Guardian, the toffs took The Times."
"A switch in newspaper usually meant a switch in political allegiance. I knew how my customers would vote."
"Im bad weather, the kind-hearted awaited my arrival with a cup of tea and a bun." How delightful!
However, "The not so kind angrily waved the paper in my face as if I were responsible for the success of Labour at the polls, or the assassination of the head of a foreign state."
"One thing I did learn was never to give a man the wrong paper. You've no idea how touchy some people can be. They'd bawl me out as if I'd permanently committed them to the wrong religion."
Mr. Grimshaw, a consummate salesman could sell anything to anyone. One time someone came into his shop looking for a Christmas gift for a relative and he said, "I can think of no better Christmas present than a chest of tea. Think of the cheer it will bring. Think with what gratitude they will remember you daily." They bought several chests of the stuff.
In 1929-1930, there was a world depression going on and the cotton industry was hit hard. "At the workers' expense everything was done to keep the industry alive: wages were cut, the hours of work increased."
As things went from bad to worse, "armed with a sledgehammer, father earned a few pounds smashing looms that earlier he had tuned with all the skill of a piano-tuner."
"A hundred years earlier in Lancashire they'd hung people for smashing the first power looms. Now they paid them to do it."
About riding around the countryside on a motorcycle: "Several times we had to stop for a shepherd and his flock. The bleating tide of bobbing black and white heads swept around us and held us in its grip. The smell of sheep and dust settled on us like a heavy mist. It took a couple of collies to get us free."
Finally, "The Lancashire I had known was a long story of broken work and broken pay; of being overworked or having no work at all; of being paid so badly that the whole family had to work or nobody ate; with only a narrow margin separating us from sinking altogether." Hard times indeed.
May 27, 2015
A book whose cover is generously splattered with positive reviews from the high and mighty, like The Guardian, the Times Literary Supplement and the Spectator.
An interesting book insofar it demonstrates the levels of poverty to be found in Britain in the early 20th century. It describes life in the cotton weaving town of Blackburn - both in it's heyday and when the mills went out of business. Spoken through the life experiences of William Woodruff and his family.
The writing style was not to my taste though, and for some reason I found the first three quarters of the book boring. I also disliked the level of detail given in some instances - it didn't seem likely that Woodruff would remember the intricacies of incidents he describes as a very young lad.
Later in the book I was however hugely touched to read about the Jarrow marchers, and others who protested when they lost their jobs at the mills. That part of the book was quite heartbreaking. All those men being told to look for work in order to qualify for the dole, when there was no work available, and the trials of their desperate existence. Woodruff was obviously an incredibly resilient boy, with lots of initiative - but even so life was tough.
I am giving this book one star though, except for the final quarter I found it quite a slog to read.
An interesting book insofar it demonstrates the levels of poverty to be found in Britain in the early 20th century. It describes life in the cotton weaving town of Blackburn - both in it's heyday and when the mills went out of business. Spoken through the life experiences of William Woodruff and his family.
The writing style was not to my taste though, and for some reason I found the first three quarters of the book boring. I also disliked the level of detail given in some instances - it didn't seem likely that Woodruff would remember the intricacies of incidents he describes as a very young lad.
Later in the book I was however hugely touched to read about the Jarrow marchers, and others who protested when they lost their jobs at the mills. That part of the book was quite heartbreaking. All those men being told to look for work in order to qualify for the dole, when there was no work available, and the trials of their desperate existence. Woodruff was obviously an incredibly resilient boy, with lots of initiative - but even so life was tough.
I am giving this book one star though, except for the final quarter I found it quite a slog to read.
June 17, 2015
A wonderful memoir that reads like good fiction masterfully told by a great storyteller. This is William Woodruff's recounting of his life as a child and adolescent in the cotton mill town of Blackbuurn, Lancashire in the 1920s and 1930s. It is about grinding hardship and miserable poverty. Yet, there is lightness as well as the telling gains more momentum and we become attached to the principal characters - William's romantic mother and taciturn father and his three older siblings. This is a family who are poor but there is also much love and loyalty.The structure of the book is a bit patchy at times and there are loose ends that want tying, but "The Road To Nab End" is a compelling depiction of a time and place that today's mod-con mob couldn't begin to countenance.
October 22, 2007
William Woodruff is an historian, economist, and author. He's British, but he lives in Florida. He's old, having emigrated to the States after life in Lancashire and London in the early 1900's.
That combination may not, at first glance, instantaneously translate into "ooh, exciting" in the eyes of literary hipsterdom. Sure, perhaps the occasional horn-rimmed glasses-wearing Bright Eyes-listening kid might secretly yearn to really, truly understand the depth and nuances of the rise, decline, and fall of Northern England's cotton industry in the early part of the century, but those kids are rare.
Thankfully, when two friends of mine (who happen to be married to one another), glance furtively at one another after I'd asked the question, "Do you have anything that I should be reading right now?", and return with this book, I didn't let that aforementioned combination stop me before I step into these pages.
Woodruff has a knack for combining vivid imagery with solid insight into the industry and politics of the world within which his life began, unfurled, and became real. His family, neighbors, friends, employers, first loves, and loyal dog are tangible and nearby - he welcomes you into his life, sharing it honestly and openly in the same manner that his family would have shared a hot cup of tea (despite their penniless existence at times) with anyone who stopped by.
The number of autobiographies I've read probably wouldn't amount to all fingers on both hands, but I'm thankful that I read this one. It's perhaps reminiscent of "Angela's Ashes", but that's probably only because that book sits within a similar time-period to this one, and because it's the only barely similar thing I have to compare it to. This book differs widely from "Ashes", however, in that there is a ruddy, determined hopefulness woven throughout it, sincere as the rough handshake of greeting any one of the weavers in his town would have given you if you'd walked their streets with them.
A stirring and highly readable book, and one that I found myself coming back to as often as I could.
That combination may not, at first glance, instantaneously translate into "ooh, exciting" in the eyes of literary hipsterdom. Sure, perhaps the occasional horn-rimmed glasses-wearing Bright Eyes-listening kid might secretly yearn to really, truly understand the depth and nuances of the rise, decline, and fall of Northern England's cotton industry in the early part of the century, but those kids are rare.
Thankfully, when two friends of mine (who happen to be married to one another), glance furtively at one another after I'd asked the question, "Do you have anything that I should be reading right now?", and return with this book, I didn't let that aforementioned combination stop me before I step into these pages.
Woodruff has a knack for combining vivid imagery with solid insight into the industry and politics of the world within which his life began, unfurled, and became real. His family, neighbors, friends, employers, first loves, and loyal dog are tangible and nearby - he welcomes you into his life, sharing it honestly and openly in the same manner that his family would have shared a hot cup of tea (despite their penniless existence at times) with anyone who stopped by.
The number of autobiographies I've read probably wouldn't amount to all fingers on both hands, but I'm thankful that I read this one. It's perhaps reminiscent of "Angela's Ashes", but that's probably only because that book sits within a similar time-period to this one, and because it's the only barely similar thing I have to compare it to. This book differs widely from "Ashes", however, in that there is a ruddy, determined hopefulness woven throughout it, sincere as the rough handshake of greeting any one of the weavers in his town would have given you if you'd walked their streets with them.
A stirring and highly readable book, and one that I found myself coming back to as often as I could.
July 30, 2009
I grew up in Blackburn and unknowingly walked past the end of the street where the bigginig of the book is based every day on my way to and from secondary school. If you live or have ever lived in Blackburn Lancahire read this book. If you have any interest in the cotton industry in the uk read this book.
The biography of an ordinary working class boy.
The biography of an ordinary working class boy.
August 21, 2014
I haven't read many autobiographies but this's the best one I've had so far. Such a magnificent story!!. I'm not sure these are 100% genuine life events, because it reads like a fictional tale. It actually felt like reading Nicholas Nickleby rather than reading an autobiography. If all of these happened for real one must admire William Woodruff's photographic memory. He could even remember the poems sang by a cart driver whom he met only once in his life when he was just 10 years old. It really doesn't matter to me if this book's real or partially fictional, coz this's a beautiful, heart warming story. I don't think Woodruffs spent a very miserable life compared to the one Maxim Gorky had, they found ways to be happy even in the darkest moments of their lives. The key was their strong family bond. And now I have great respect for the English working class of 1920s. They were squeezed and cut off from their jobs, they striked, they fought, but never did they shed blood. That was a very special revolution (if it can be called a revolution)
November 13, 2008
Picked this up for cheap at my local thrift store. So far it's interesting.
Ok, I ended up really liking this book. It read like fiction, to me. I find myself fascinated with how people lived without all the conveniences that we are so accustomed to. Reading this book also made me stop and think about how incredibly blessed I am. My closets and cupboards are full and I have a vehicle to take me wherever I might want to go. I felt ashamed of my lack of gratitude when reading about the struggle that so many people went through and that still effects so many.
Ok, I ended up really liking this book. It read like fiction, to me. I find myself fascinated with how people lived without all the conveniences that we are so accustomed to. Reading this book also made me stop and think about how incredibly blessed I am. My closets and cupboards are full and I have a vehicle to take me wherever I might want to go. I felt ashamed of my lack of gratitude when reading about the struggle that so many people went through and that still effects so many.
January 27, 2015
It too me a long time to get round to reading this book, as a lad born in Blackburn it was a must read. And I loved it! Originally publish in 1993 under the title 'Billy Boy' it was re-released under the new title 'The Road to Nab End' by the publishers in 2000. The new title I guess is a nod to George Orwell's book 'Road to Wigan Pier' which covered the same era. (Originally published 3 years before Angela's Ashes)
Firstly this is an interesting history of the decline of the cotton trade in Lancashire, not packed full of stats and names but full of social experience. Some of Woodruff's accounts especially in the chapter Running Wild are the same as the stories my Dad tells me when he was a Kid in the 60's and 70's. 40 or 50 years on life was still tough for many in Blackburn though obviously not on the same scale as the depression years. I have often been told of the chimneys (pronounced chimleys in Lancastrian) that rose from the terraces all over Blackburn. This physical aspect of the towns past has long since been destroyed. So much so I can not even imagine.
The Road to Nab end however has helped me to picture the world in which my family lived, something that I have never really got from any straight history book. The characters, the dialect, some of which you still hear and others that I have never heard before. The Griffin Pub was still there the last time I looked as are some of the other streets mentioned except Polly Street which is probably under a housing estate.
Woodruff's mother was a Kenyon and certainly I have met a few of those in Blackburn, do wonder if they are related.
As some one who lived in Blackburn and moved away this book really calls to me, I felt connected with those in the story, that in a small way my experience was similar. I think it was but not quiet as interesting as Woodruff's. Thus though I am not in Blackburn anymore I am anf=d always have been proud of my 'grimey' town.
Firstly this is an interesting history of the decline of the cotton trade in Lancashire, not packed full of stats and names but full of social experience. Some of Woodruff's accounts especially in the chapter Running Wild are the same as the stories my Dad tells me when he was a Kid in the 60's and 70's. 40 or 50 years on life was still tough for many in Blackburn though obviously not on the same scale as the depression years. I have often been told of the chimneys (pronounced chimleys in Lancastrian) that rose from the terraces all over Blackburn. This physical aspect of the towns past has long since been destroyed. So much so I can not even imagine.
The Road to Nab end however has helped me to picture the world in which my family lived, something that I have never really got from any straight history book. The characters, the dialect, some of which you still hear and others that I have never heard before. The Griffin Pub was still there the last time I looked as are some of the other streets mentioned except Polly Street which is probably under a housing estate.
Woodruff's mother was a Kenyon and certainly I have met a few of those in Blackburn, do wonder if they are related.
As some one who lived in Blackburn and moved away this book really calls to me, I felt connected with those in the story, that in a small way my experience was similar. I think it was but not quiet as interesting as Woodruff's. Thus though I am not in Blackburn anymore I am anf=d always have been proud of my 'grimey' town.
May 14, 2016
Wonderful read. I recently visited Lancashire for only the third time, and would love to go back and see more. I visited a Toby restaurant in Bolton (see my blog!) which had been converted from the 19th century 'Gentleman's House' of a Master Cotton Bleacher. William Woodruff's book tells how the other half were living some years later. Now very keen to read his history books, and I'll be encouraging my husband, whose family come from the mining community of the Welsh Valleys, to read this book too.
September 24, 2010
A great book told from th point of view of a young child growing up in a working class town, Blackburn, in Lancashire England. The family are all working in cotton mills -- their lot in life.
The book is somewhat reminiscent of "Angela's Ashes" -- but somehow less depressing. There is always escape to the hills putside Blackburn -- walks, games and freedom out there help the kids and workers survive their long hours of backbreaking work for little pay. The writer seems to attract "mentors" -- or people who spend time with him, educating him and opening his word.
Woodruff himself is the boy in the book -- and in a the last scene he is getting a ride in a lorry ("Truck") to London. What he does not tell here (maybe the next book??) is that at 20, he got a London Council scholarship to Oxford and eventually became an academic historian, specializing in economic/social history. As a result, he winds in lots of information about tension between mill owners and workers, the competition from other parts of he world who could make cotton less expensively than the Lancashire mills can, the trades union movement and the Great Strike of 1926.
Finally this book brought back memories of my Lancashire grandparents -- especially some of the words they used (like "clemmed" fpr hungry.) They escaped from Lncashire in the late 1920's "over the hill" to Cheshire -- and work available there I have to find out more about their lives in Lancashire (the Wigan area.)
The book is somewhat reminiscent of "Angela's Ashes" -- but somehow less depressing. There is always escape to the hills putside Blackburn -- walks, games and freedom out there help the kids and workers survive their long hours of backbreaking work for little pay. The writer seems to attract "mentors" -- or people who spend time with him, educating him and opening his word.
Woodruff himself is the boy in the book -- and in a the last scene he is getting a ride in a lorry ("Truck") to London. What he does not tell here (maybe the next book??) is that at 20, he got a London Council scholarship to Oxford and eventually became an academic historian, specializing in economic/social history. As a result, he winds in lots of information about tension between mill owners and workers, the competition from other parts of he world who could make cotton less expensively than the Lancashire mills can, the trades union movement and the Great Strike of 1926.
Finally this book brought back memories of my Lancashire grandparents -- especially some of the words they used (like "clemmed" fpr hungry.) They escaped from Lncashire in the late 1920's "over the hill" to Cheshire -- and work available there I have to find out more about their lives in Lancashire (the Wigan area.)
September 1, 2019
What an incredible book, so brilliantly crafted and superbly written. I picked this up from a shelf of books near the checkout in Morrisons, people donate books and you donate any given sum for charity when you chose from them. At first, I wasn't sure I would really read it. I've read a fair amount of books about being brought up in poverty during the first and middle part of the last century. However, this book is, in my opinion one of the very best in that genre.
Willian Woodruff beautifully brings to life, for the reader, the real characters that were part of his early life. His story and the story of those around him are absolutely gripping. It is a fairly long book and I thought that I might plod my way through it, instead, I found myself reading as many pages as I could at any given time available.
A memorable book that will stay with me. I have been introduced to people I shall now be unable to forget.
Willian Woodruff beautifully brings to life, for the reader, the real characters that were part of his early life. His story and the story of those around him are absolutely gripping. It is a fairly long book and I thought that I might plod my way through it, instead, I found myself reading as many pages as I could at any given time available.
A memorable book that will stay with me. I have been introduced to people I shall now be unable to forget.
June 21, 2015
My late father was from Lancashire, just a few years older than William Woodruff. Although he endured some hardships as a child, they were nothing compared with Woodruff's upbringing. This is a compelling book. There is no self pity or looking back to "what ifs". You believe him when he says he is glad his family was poor because it taught him so many valuable lessons of life and living, and of the honesty among those in the same situation. Within minutes of finishing this wonderful childhood memoir I downloaded the e edition of the sequel which I read over two days. In addition to Woodruff's personal story, he describes how cotton was made into fabrics, where it was shipped (around the world) and, ultimately, why the industry failed in Blackburn. I would wish only that he had written a third book.
December 23, 2015
I am not usually that keen on reading this kind of book (personal memories) , but this is a real exception ... its quite fascinating, engaging and funny, and beautifully written. He divided the topics up by chapter - all are really good, anf he brings ~~Blsacvkburn in the heyday of the textile industry to life in a magnificent way... It starts in 1916 (when he was born) and as the book goes on, the slumps and depression hit cotton manufacturing and the hardships are more and more sou-destroying. There are some excellent chapters on politics in action, soap boxing, Labour v Fascist, and equally fascinating ones on his life overall, work play, study, friends and local characters, his employers and workmates. Highly recommended .
May 31, 2016
Autobiographical account of a childhood spent in Blackburn, a Lancashire cotton- weaving town in the early twentieth century. Woodruff never writes sentimentally about the terrible hardships these working-class people faced throughout the depression years. Unusually for an autobiography I found it utterly compulsive reading. It is the first of two parts and I definitely mean to read its sequel . A very fine slice of social history without the lecture; a masterfully-written account of an impoverished childhood. Superb.
February 15, 2012
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It created the atmosphere of those times so well and I can recommend it as a really good read for anyone who has an interest in a true and well written piece of actual social history.
March 25, 2015
What a great read, a book that I will long remember. The author has given a strong and well written account of working class life in Twenties Lancashire. A fine and stirring book, long to be remembered.
July 16, 2013
I didn't want this book to end. It made me laugh, it made me cry. Great characters brought to life by Mr. Woodruff. Fabulous!!
October 7, 2007
This autobiography was the October selection for our library reading group. It is the biography of William Woodruff, now an eminent historian, from his birth in 1916 in the Blackburn cotton factory where his mother was working to the point he ran away to London at age 16. It describes his upbringing and his family's struggle to survive during the period that the Lancashire cotton industry went into decline in 1920 through to the Great Depression and beyond. It is a story of considerable hardship though even in the bleakest of times Billy and his family find pleasure in small things. I was particularly struck by how important the love of learning installed in Billy by various adults was to his story. Aside from a personal autobiography, Woodruff gives many historical details about the times especially the economic aspects so vital to the cotton industry.
I thought I would dislike it given that it is the story of a childhood spent in poverty. However, I found it an engaging read and quite inspiring. Although my parents were born a decade later, both came from working class backgrounds and so I heard a great deal about their living conditions growing up. The book stirred echoes of these family memories though happily they never faced this kind of deprivation.
July 17, 2018
For anyone who likes autobiographies and has an interest in growing up post World War 1 in the north of England this is an excellent read. Set in Lancashire, it tells the tale of young Billy and his family's experience of the 1920s depression, having returned from an aborted emigration to America. With only a small amount of sentiment creeping in this is a lively, enjoyable account of Billy’s family life with a keen awareness of finance and politics thrown in for good measure. With deservedly good reviews from the Guardian and Observer this is a well-written and direct account that creates a good page-turner.
September 29, 2015
A fascinating insight to life in Blackburn from the First World War and through the dramatic decline in the cotton industry. It was a very compelling read. Although an autobiography, it was highly readable and kept me fully engaged in it. The descriptions of the poverty experienced by the author and his family were so real. On the one hand utterly depressing in that such poverty existed in England less than 100 years ago, but on the other hand a fascinating insight into what was a very real world for people of only a couple of generations ago. Would strongly recommend it.
July 9, 2017
I grew up in Lancashire, so could visualise the poverty and poor housing etc., that he was brought up in. An excellent story about his childhood, and I went on to read the sequel, also an excellent read. Well done for the determination that he had to make something of his life and become successful. Shame the author has now died, as I would have loved to have read a third book about his later life.
February 22, 2013
hmmm, the writing of the book was rather boring, I grew up with a lot of things like that, and I thought, I would learn more about England... not exactly catching, I found... the only thing I learnt, is that life in England and Germany was not so different, except England had a welfare system back then, which we had not... well, it was not really a welfare system... tough times throughout Europe.
May 11, 2017
Clearly charting the demise of the cotton industry in Lancashire and the impossibility of finding work during the 1920s, this is a personal account of family life and the struggle to pay rent, keep food on the table and clothes on their backs. Powerfully written and extremely engrossing, this is social history at its best.
December 3, 2013
Loved it! I went to Blackburn & Nab End just to see where this amazing man/writer/human being grew up.
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September 1, 2019Childhood biography from early 20th century. Great insight into social history of Northern town.
November 19, 2023
Not everyone’s cup of tea but I was brought up in Blackburn with the same maiden name as Williams mother. To me this book was a delight & it brought back lots of memories. Will definitely be reading the next one in the series.
February 26, 2020
Since I have been in Lancashire most of the year so far, this book seemed appropriate.
Set in Blackburn, one town north of where I grew up, part of the same set of textile towns, the setting is very familiar. Although my time there in the 50s and 60s was somewhat more prosperous than the depression era in the book, the people were very similar and this semi semi-autobiographical work reminded me a lot of my time in the 1950s.
I think it would help others visualise the setting.
The book closes as the young lad reached his later teens, comes to understand the politics and becomes a socialist, just prior to leaving Lancashire for London.
Set in Blackburn, one town north of where I grew up, part of the same set of textile towns, the setting is very familiar. Although my time there in the 50s and 60s was somewhat more prosperous than the depression era in the book, the people were very similar and this semi semi-autobiographical work reminded me a lot of my time in the 1950s.
I think it would help others visualise the setting.
The book closes as the young lad reached his later teens, comes to understand the politics and becomes a socialist, just prior to leaving Lancashire for London.
November 30, 2008
i enjoyed this book although I found some real contradictions between the family living on the bread line but then being able to improve their housing st a time when work in the cotton mills was on the decline. I also couldn't get my head around the mother's trip to blackpool where seemingly she did a spot of prostitution to earn a few coppers. Apart from that it did evoke a certain time and place and the decline in the cotton inducstry reminded me of stuff I'd done at school on social history.
June 11, 2012
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. William Woodruff painted a very vivid picture of life in that part of the 20th century. However, I too found it difficult to work out the reason for his mother's trip to Blackpool, where she did a spot of prostitution. It seemed so totally out of character but people have all sorts of reasons for their actions and I suppose she put morals to one side in order to earn enough money to get what she wanted out of life.
July 30, 2018
I read this after I read Beyond Nab End, and I think had I read this one first I may not have gone on to read the second one, which would have been a shame as that was by far the better book. This one didnt engage me as much and seemed more disjointed and a bit repetitive in places. However it was still interesting and showed what a poor background William came from and the challenges he had to deal with.
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