Most Popular Books by Melvyn Bragg

Based on Melvyn Bragg''s stirring novel of rural and industrial working life early in the twentieth century, The Hired Man tells of one family''s - Bragg''s grandparents'' - journey from land laborers to colliers and back to the land. The superb score is a marvelous succession of chorales, operatic duets and vigorous foot stomping rhythms.5 women, 14 men

John visits his ageing mother Mary in her nursing home by the sea, and mourns the slow fading of her mind. Hoping to shore up her memory, he prompts her with songs, photographs and questions about the 1940s, when she was a young woman and he a child in a small Cumbrian town. But he finds that most of all it is her own mother she longs for - Grace, the mother she barely knew. John sets out to recreate their buried family history, delving into the secrets and silences of Mary''s fractured childhood as he imagines the life of her spirited mother. Reaching from the late 19th century to the present, this becomes a deeply moving, reflective elegy on three generations linked by a chain of love, loss, and courage.

''The best thing he''s ever written . . . I loved it'' Observer Melvyn Bragg''s first ever memoir - an elegiac, intimate account of growing up in post-war Cumbria, which lyrically evokes a vanished world. In this captivating memoir, Melvyn Bragg recalls growing up in the Cumbrian market town of Wigton, from his early childhood during the war to the moment he had to decide between staying on or spreading his wings. This is the tale of a boy who lived in a pub and expected to leave school at fifteen yet won a scholarship to Oxford. Derailed by a severe breakdown when he was thirteen, he developed a passion for reading and study - though that didn''t stop him playing in a skiffle band or falling in love. It is equally the tale of the people and place that formed him. Bragg indelibly portrays his parents and local characters from pub regulars to vicars, teachers and hardmen, and vividly captures the community-spirited northern town - steeped in the old ways but on the cusp of post-war change. A poignant elegy to a vanished era as well as the glories of the Lake District, it illuminates what made him the writer, broadcaster and champion of the arts he is today. ''A memoir bursting with affection . . . fascinating'' Sunday Times

Writers, artists and thinkers in British life talk about what Europe means to them. Includes: Frank Cottrell Boyce, William Dalrymple, Margaret Drabble, Simon Callow, Tracey Emin, J.K. Rowling, Holly Johnson, Pete Townshend, Melvyn Bragg, Jeffrey Boakye, Onjali Rauf, Tony Robinson, Will Hutton, Prue Leith, Jonathan Meades, Chris Riddell, Philip Ardagh, Mary Beard, Brian Catling.

Melvyn Bragg''s celebrated trilogy - THE HIRED MAN, A PLACE IN ENGLAND and KINGDOM COME - traces four generations of Tallentire history: from John in the rural Cumbria of 1898 to Douglas in the competitive and backbiting metropolis of the Seventies. From ''hired man'' to media man worlds have been bridged, but the old ideals of success, freedom and happiness seem ever elusive as each Tallentire must come to terms with private uncertainty and pain. ''An uncommonly high talent. The people are "real" enough to leave footprints right across the page'' Guardian

Traces the 400-year history of the King James Bible and the impact it has had on societies over the centuries.

''An enjoyably pacey read.'' Times Literary Supplement ''Eloquent... brilliant and very moving.'' Paul Cartledge, Emeritus Professor of Greek culture, University of Cambridge ''On the morning of 6 October 1536, a frail scholar was taken from a dungeon in the castle at Vilvoorde, just north of Brussels. Armed guards kept the crowds at bay as he was led through the streets of the small town. He was to be burned. The funeral pyre, a wigwam stack of planks surmounted by a cross, was ready. Gunpowder would be thrown on the wood to encourage the flames. He was allowed a few moments of prayer. As a priest, prayer had been the keystone of his faith. After the brief pause, he walked up the steps to be tied to the cross. As he waited for the flames, he called out, "Lord, open the King of England''s eyes!'' ''This was William Tyndale, the man whose translation of the New Testament and much of the Old Testament was to bring about more profound changes to the English-speaking world over the next five centuries than the works of any other man in its history.'' From Chapter 1: Innocence and genius

A wonderful collection of stories from the beloved novelist and poet.

Young Harry, an orphan from an impoverished council estate, becomes the link between starkly contrasting worlds: north and south, the deprived and the over-privileged, the powerful and the defenceless. With this compelling story of blackmail, media politics, corrupted innocence and redemptive love, Melvyn Bragg delivers an unforgettable portrait of modern life.

What drives a musician to write extraordinary songs? How do writers create their worlds? How does an actor achieve greatness? For over thirty years of The South Bank Show, Melvyn Bragg has interviewed many of the greatest cultural icons of our age. These interviews offer revelatory insights into the lives and work of writers, actors, artists and musicians. In The South Bank Show: Final Cut he has revisited some of these artists and used the interviews as the basis for fuller portraits. The range of artists is remarkable and this book is true to The South Bank Show''s ethos of seeking out the highest quality whatever the art form. Melvyn Bragg''s unique perspective makes this book indispensable for anyone interested in the work and lives of some of the best artists of our time.

Melvyn Bragg''s In Our Time series regularly enlightens and entertains substantial audiences on BBC Radio 4. For this book he has selected episodes which reflect the diversity of the radio programmes, and takes us on an amazing tour through the history of ideas, from philosophy, physics and history to religion, literature and biology. We can discover the reasons for the fall of the Byzantine empire, and why women were persecuted as witches in the seventeenth century. What happened in the peasants'' revolt? What shape is the origin of life? Where does our calendar come from? We can unearth the influence of great Islamic thinkers, prime numbers, Socrates and Tectonic plates. Melvyn Bragg orchestrates the ideas of leading academics in each field so that the dynamic and lively discussion from the programmes comes through vividly on the page. In Our Time brings to life the signposts of history, the moments that significantly changed the world as we know it, and the individuals and ideas that made us what we are today.

The Seventh Seal is probably Bergman''s best-known work and the film that most clearly bears the director''s unmistakeable signature. The opening scene sets the tone: a stony beach under a leaden sky, the knight alone with his thoughts, then the approach of black-clad Death, whom the knight invites to play a game of chess. Bergman''s medieval allegory of faith and doubt is dark with the horrors of witch-burnings and the plague. But it is also shot through with bright flashes of peace and joy, symbolised in the milk and wild strawberries offered to the knight by an innocent family of actors. In his compelling appreciation, Melvyn Bragg describes his own first encounter as a student with this extraordinary film, and how it revealed to him another cinema, quite different from the Hollywood he had grown up with. He recounts too his later meeting with Bergman himself, and how the marks of the director''s powerful personality are everywhere in this troubling and inspiring masterpiece.