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I expect a lot of us have read this book already, but I read it for the first time yesterday and couldn't put it down. It's an account of working folks' conditions in a cotton town, in fact Blackburn but I doubt if Burnley or Briercliffe were very different, from around 1900 to the 1930s. The author was born in 1916 but remembers a lot of what he heard from his elders, as well as his own experiences "at the bottom of the heap". I found it absolutely fascinating and pretty horrifying - it brings to life the context of my grandfather's work as Vicar of St Andrew's in the 'twenties and the world in which my grandmother grew up, in Stafford St and Elm St in the last decades of the 19th Century, and makes me realise how well off we are now by comparison. I strongly recommend it.

The Road to Nab End, by William Woodruff, ISBN 0 349 11521 4, published in paperback by Abacus 2002. (It was first published under the title Billy Boy by Ryburn Publishing in 1993, in America I think).

Charon

There's a sequel to it, but cannot remember the name at the moment.

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Gloria

I'd be dangerous with a brain.

There's a list of other books by the author which includes Vessel of Sadness and Paradise Galore - the rest look much more academic! Does either ring a bell?

Charon

I was just about to the same thing.
It's called 'Beyond Nab End'.

William Woodruff has a website. http://williamwoodruff.com/

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Mel

Searching for lost relatives? Win the Lottery!

That's it Mel.

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Gloria

I'd be dangerous with a brain.

There is also another book in a similar vein called from memory A Broken Biscuit. This is about recollections of a lady brought up in the Trafalgar Street area of Burnley and is also a fascinating read.

Thanks David. It's The Broken Biscuit, by Winifred Cowell.

There's a a thread on BurnleyWeb

<http://www.burnleyweb.com/forum/burnley-history/4630-broken-biscuit.html>
Charon

I should have read the BurnleyWeb thread more carefully! The book's about Winifred Cowell but written by her son John.

http://www.burnleyweb.com/forum/burnley ... scuit.html

Charon

Didn't he write another one "God loves a trier"

James Cowell wrote that Pollyanna.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/God-Loves-Trier-Heartache-Adversity/dp/1904034608

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Mel

Searching for lost relatives? Win the Lottery!

I read this book some time back. Fascinating reading, though not knowing the topography of Blackburn (you don't if you are from Burnley !) was frustrating. I do remember being a bit ill at ease with some of the sweeping assertions he made about social conditions. Maybe that is simply because he has lived in USA for so long, and hasn't lived through more recent times in Lancashire.

Also I think I saw a review somewhere at an early stage which questioned some of the facts he gave, including matters of local topography. Again, his time away is a long one.

I guess all I'm saying is to read it with a critical eye, and maybe contrast with mainstream historical works on the period.

Rex