The Road to Nab End: A Lancashire Childhood [Paperback]

William Woodruff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 6, 2001

A bestseller in England and celebrated as one of the great memoirs in many years, The Road to Nab End is a marvelously evocative account of growing up poor in a British mill town. From William Woodruff's birth in 1916 (in the carding room of a cotton mill) until he ran away to London at the age of sixteen, he lived in the heart of Blackburn's weaving community in the north of England. But after Lancashire's supremacy in cotton textiles ended with the crash of 1920, his father was thrown out of work. From then on, Billy and his family faced a life blighted by extreme poverty. For the ordinary families of Lancashire, unemployment was an ever-present fear: "If you worked you ate. If there was no work you went hungry." Billy's boyhood was not all misery. Working-class pride and culture made for tight family and neighborhood bonds and added savor to the smallest pleasures in life. Mr. Woodruff writes with an understated lyricism and an eye for telling details that effortlessly pulls us into another time and place.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Once started it is impossible to put this book down. The author is a born writer with an eye for character and a natural way of writing...he has the historian's gift for bringing to life a particular society at a particular time, which marks his book out. (Alan Bullock Times Literary Supplement )

Extraordinarily well written and vividly told, his book is rich in characters, facts, atmosphere, and indomitable spirit. It is absolutely fascinating as a social as well as a family history. (Eric Hobsbawm Guardian )

A masterpiece. (The Independent )

Like finding a great recipe or discovering an old movie on video that may have escaped the notice of critics. (Gainesville Sun )

About the Author

William Woodruff was born in 1916 into a family of Lancashire cotton workers. Leaving school at 13, he became a delivery boy in a grocer's shop. In 1933, with bleak prospects in the north of England, he decided to try his luck in London. In 1936, with the aid of a London County Council Scholarship he went to Oxford University. During the Second World War he fought with the British Army in North Africa and the Mediterranean region. In 1946 Woodruff renewed his academic career. He is a world historian whose work has been widely translated. Woodruff has seven children and lives in Florida.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: New Amsterdam Books (August 6, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1561310697
• ISBN-13: 978-1561310692
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #846,794 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deeply felt. Vividly told. One man's story speaks to us all, October 1, 2001

By 

Mr J MITCHELL (FROME, Somerset, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Road to Nab End: A Lancashire Childhood (Paperback)

It's a cliche to say "I couldn't put it down", but this time it's true. I found the book utterly enthralling and deeply moving, and not only because I grew up in Blackburn myself. It was written with passion, humour, commitment, and a wonderful eye and ear for remembered detail. This was no mere plodding blow-by-blow account of the author's childhood and youth; the memories were organised into thematic chapters, many of which could stand alone as sensitively crafted short stories in their own right - I think for instance of the intensely moving chapter about his visits to his maiden aunts in Bamber Bridge.

At the same time, the book conveys with extraordinary immediacy the human, social and political reality of a crucial moment in our national history. Above all, like any work which concentrates on being intensely specific, it achieves the status of universality in its implications.

The book was given to me as a Christmas present. Next Christmas, my friends and relations will be getting it - if I can wait till then to tell them about it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Praise From A Lancashire Lass, September 28, 2001

By 

Eileen Haworth (Blackburn, Lancashire England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Road to Nab End: A Lancashire Childhood (Paperback)

This story had a special significance for me as the author's hometown, Blackburn, is also my hometown. He was 7 years younger than my father although they attended the same school. However, I am certain the book will be enjoyed by many people who do not have that same personal connection.
It is beautifully written, with the historical content merging skillfully into the story of family life.
The book will be of particular interest to anyone who grew up in an industrial area, not just in Britain; to Americans and Canadians who can trace their families back to the mill-towns of Lancashire or Yorkshire; to anyone who finds the 1900-1930 period fascinating; to anyone who remembers their own family's struggles against adversity, and to anyone who enjoyed Angela's Ashes - but would prefer a more down-to earth story with fewer funerals!

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bill, You Really Told It!, July 9, 2002

By 

rita houldsworth (Rockville, Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Road to Nab End: A Lancashire Childhood (Paperback)

Forget ANGELA'S ASHES. THE ROAD TO NAB END is less bleak, it is witty and relieved by warmth and humor. The story of a city boy, born in the mill and growing up in grinding poverty is relieved by an unsentimental irreverence for conventional piety, enlivened by his forays into the gentle Lancashire countryside, the love of family and an impossible teenage romance.Bill Woodruff tells it as it was. I know because I was there. Although we both found our way to America, Blackburn of the 20's and 30's is indelibly printed on our souls.