Customer Reviews

Bright Day

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I added that question mark as an afterthought.
Bright Day is certainly my favorite Priestley story. It has all his signature elements - wonderful play with time, normal people doing normal things in interesting ways, and of course his beloved Bruddersford.
It's a novel, but there seems to be a lot of Priestley in it. Gregory Dawson, the hero, is a writer (movies) who takes a room at a seaside hotel to finsih writing a screenplay. His early life was spent in a wool office in Bruddersford , where he worked as hard as he needed to, and plotted his escape to a brighter world.
Now, aged 50, and working on his screenplay at The Royal Ocean Hotel, that long-forgotten past makes an unexpected appearance. He then moves between the Bruddersford of his youth and the tensions of the present, with (for me anyway) some surprising twists and revelations.
I like the characters, and the way in particular that Priestley creates the Alingtons as a family who have so much...or seem to.
The plot is good without being great; it's the people who make the story as much as it is what they do.
I wonder if he ever thought of it as a play; I think it could have worked.
Much shorter than The Good Companions and Angel Pavement, Bright Day is readable and enjoyable.Well worth tracking down.