All in a lifetime

by Walter Allen

This is the autobiography of William Ewart Ashted, an aristocrat of the working class (a 1959 creation of a literary journalist and author who started out in his native Birmingham and then went to London to make his mark). From old age William looks back without bitterness along the years in which he and his sort have risen to power. Although the book spells out the whole spirit of the English non-conformist, radical tradition, it is first and foremost the life and philosophy of a loveable figure --a master craftsman who is a good husband, a proud father. amd a staunch friend.

274 pages, Hardcover

First published January 5, 1959

About the author

Walter Ernest Allen was an English literary critic and novelist.

Reviews

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

1986 notebook: very male book, of its time I suppose; he mentions his wife two or three times throughout its length; can't come to terms with women or sex. Women don't get much of a look in - his wife seems loved because she is quiet and still, undemanding, even at the end when she goes blind. But, on the other hand, a felicitous portrait of the Midlands, lower middle class life in Birmingham in the first half of the twentieth century, and can be enjoyed for that.