For Want of a Nail

Description

"For Want of a Nail" is a novel about growing up in rural Cumberland. In his childhood Tom Graham is deprived of the understanding, affection and care of his parents, and, more crucially, of the true facts about his parentage. This is the story of his adolescence and growth into adulthood. Melvyn Bragg is the author of "Without a City Wall", "The Hired Man", "Kingdom Come" and "The Maid of Buttermere", all of which are set in Cumbria.

Melvyn Bragg's first novel, FOR WANT OF A NAIL, was published in 1965 and since then his novels have included THE HIRED MAN, for which he won the Time/Life Silver Pen Award, WITHOUT A CITY WALL, winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, THE SOLDIER'S RETURN, which won the WHSmith Literary Award, and A SON OF WAR and CROSSING THE LINES, both of which were longlisted for the Booker Prize, and his most recent novel REMEMBER ME... He has also written several works of non-fiction including THE ADVENTURE OF ENGLISH and 12 BOOKS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD.

The impression is one of striking individuality - the sort of originality an author achieves when he has really meditated hard about his characters, loved them, watched them, and let them grow - Sunday Telegraph A novel well worth returning to...a vivid and totally original imagination...tableau after tableau is spotlit into brilliant life - Scotsman A very good novel...sparkles with a keen awareness of both local landscape and character - Cumberland Evening News Fine, tense writing derived not from books but from passionate observation of particular landscapes and people - Spectator