Product Description

When Sam Richardson returns from World War II to Wigton in Cumbria, he finds little has changed, as far as his own limited prospects go. In his absence, though, his young family has changed immensely, and Sam struggles to adjust to life in peacetime.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #374878 in Books
• Published on: 2000-05-18
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback

Amazon.co.uk Review
The end of World War Two has to be one of Britain's most dewy-eyed, rose-tinted memories. Yearned for years in advance--Dame Vera Lynn built an entire career on such yearning--it spelled the end of the anguishing waiting, the terrible deprivations overseas and Johnny asleep in his own little bed again. It takes a good novel to make new all the hackneyed emotion of the moment, and a great one to reveal, without sensationalising, the doubts behind the smiles. In that case, this may be a great novel.

By the time corporal Sam Richardson returns from Burma to his Cumbrian hometown of Wigton, the bunting's long gone, and Sam, like everybody else, wants to get back to normal. But his plans to return to family life with Ellen and six- year-old son Joe don't run smooth. The war has taken away his old job, while Ellen holds down two; Joe's been raised with other men as father-figures; and Sam struggles to repress what he's witnessed out east. In The Soldier's Return Bragg explores the most unsettling of experiences: returning to a normality that's no longer normal. In Sam, with his undemonstrative reserve and irrational suspicions, he creates a man who cannot heal the mental scars of active service. While Bragg affectingly evokes Cumbria in the 40s, with a sure-footed sense of that time and place's idiom, this is no exercise in nostalgia, but a book whose concerns--how to deal with the happy ending of war--are only too resonant today. --Alan Stewart

Daily Telegraph
'Strong, straightforward, explicit, evocative'

Review
'Unsentimental, truthful and wonderful' (Beryl Bainbridge, Sunday Times Books of the Year )

'Outstandingly good . . . utterly credible, utterly compelling, and very enjoyable' (Allan Massie, Scotsman )

'Sympathetic, touching, infinitely believable . . . a highly accomplished novel' (D.J. Taylor, Literary Review )

'The first Great War came alive in Faulks's Birdsong; the second Great War, and in particular the Burma campaign, comes very much alive in Melvyn Bragg’s THE SOLDIER'S RETURN . . . wholly absorbing' (John Bayley, Evening Standard )

'Deeply felt, beautifully realised' (John Bayley, Evening Standard )

Customer Reviews

Sensitive and evocative
This was a compelling read. At the same time I wanted to make it last and absorb the atmosphere. It was very evocative of the post-war period and the 3 main protagonists were sympathetically drawn, particularly Ellen. As a woman, I found Bragg's observation of her character particularly sensitive and could easily identify with her emotional turmoil. I think many women found the war years a liberating experience, whereas their soldier husbands dreamed of returning to a peaceful and comfortable marriage. The problems of re-adjustment for the husband, the wife and for the child, are sensitively explored by Bragg in this well-written novel evocative of both time and place.

Old-fashioned tale of post-war life.
Melvyn Bragg's The Soldier's Return is the age-old story of a young man who goes off to World War II and returns to find his world totally changed. Sam Richardson, a young man from rural England, has fought in the Burma campaign in World War II and is a changed man himself. Sam has seen such atrocity that he is now harder and less willing to show a soft side. His son Joe, now five, doesn't know him. His wife has been successful working two modest jobs and does not want to give them up. Sam's exposure to the outside world has shown him how limited his future is in the socially inflexible world of Wigton, while his wife Ellen, in contrast, has been supported by the friendships, traditions, and familiarity of this community, where she knows everyone.

The tensions within the family and within individual characters grow and boil over, as stiff-upper-lip-ishness comes into conflict with the human need to communicate and share. Bragg's dialogue is completely natural, needing only the inflections of a voice to bring it completely to life. His descriptions and his narrative style are simple, as is his choice of vocabulary, so that no reader will have trouble following the various threads of the story while learning much about Cumbria, post-World War II social upheavals, and the kinds of personal problems that may have been typical for many other young soldiers. Like the best of the old-fashioned novels, this is a story of basic values, with characters who grow and change. Mary Whipple

A book to return to..
This was a book club book and so I was required to read it! Not sure I would have naturally leaned toward reading it otherwise.

However - it was a good read. Not a non-stop read but a book that you eagerly returned to time and again. Its images are still in my head several months later - so it must have had an impact! It was not a particularly sentimental novel but comes across as very real - a believeable, non glossy, non tear jerking,reflection of the times.

I loved the style of Mr Bragg and look forward to discovering more of his novels.