A01=James Runcie
Author_James Runcie
Books about post war England
Britain British human relationships
Canvey Island 1950s 1953
Category=FBA
Churchill Thatcherism politics
Colour Heaven
Discovery Chocolate
East Fortune
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eq_fiction
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eq_modern-contemporary
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Everyday detail writing
Fortunes austerity
Generational family saga
Granchester
Grantchester Mysteries
Historical English life after WW2
History clear time place setting
Len Violet George
Love and ordinary lives
Perils Night
Second World 2nd II two
Sidney Chambers and The Shadow of Death
Product details
- ISBN 9780747585831
- Weight: 218g
- Dimensions: 129 x 198mm
- Publication Date: 02 Apr 2007
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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‘Runcie has captured the truth about love ... he is the simple chronicler of English post-war life, using irony and understatement to lay bare the pathos of ordinary lives ... Beautifully done' - Sunday Telegraph
‘A tender, intimate account of post-war England which left me both wistful and elated ... So engaging, so well-shaped and so unsparingly, generously truthful' - Jim Crace
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A moving family saga and wonderfully rich portrait of post-war Britain
It is 1953 in Canvey Island. Len and Violet are at a dance. Violet's husband George sits and watches them sway and glide across the dance floor, his mind far away, trapped by a war that ended nearly ten years ago. Meanwhile, at home, a storm rages and Len's wife Lily and his young son Martin fight for their lives in the raging black torrent. The night ends in a tragedy that will reverberate through their lives.
This poignant novel follows the family's fortunes from the austerity of the post-war years to Churchill's funeral, from Greenham Common to the onset of Thatcherism and beyond, eloquently capturing the very essence of a transforming England in the decades after the war. It is a triumph of understated emotion, a novel about growing up and growing old, about love, hope and reconciliation.
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‘Runcie's third novel is a funny, epic, moving story of Thameside folk ... a beautifully observed, tragi-comic work' - What’s On
‘Runcie writes with an excellent feeling for time and place, and, above all, the intensity of ordinary lives' - Choice
James Runcie is the author of two novels, The Discovery of Chocolate and The Colour of Heaven. He is also an award-winning film-maker and theatre director and has scripted several films for BBC Television. James Runcie lives in St.Albans with his wife and two daughters.
