Soldier's Return [Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Melvyn Bragg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 26, 1999

When Sam Richardson returns in 1946 from the 'Forgotten War' in Burma to Wigton in Cumbria, he finds little has changed, as far as his own limited prospects go. In his absence, though, his young family has altered immensely. His wife Ellen has found a sense of self worth in her war time jobs, and doesn't want to return to her old life. Their six-year-old son Joe, accustomed to his mother's undivided love and attention, doesn't welcome the father he barely remembers. And Sam finds the traumatic scenes he witnessed in Burma have changed him too, making the confines of this working class Cumbrian town stifling. The result is a family in turmoil, which reaches breaking point when Sam resolves to emigrate to Australia.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Paradoxically, one of this era's most ubiquitous media voices writes with tremendous empathy about the vanished culture of least said, soonest mended ... one of the tautest and fiercest of Bragg's fictions, alongside FOR WANT OF A NAIL, THE HIRED MAN and THE MAID OF BUTTERMERE.' -- Independent 'Reads like Lawrence without the lunacy and stodginess. It packs an emotional punch that will even have cynics sobbing by the last page. All of us hanker after unconditional love, the memory of our father's arms around us. THE SOLDIER'S RETURN feels like the book Bragg was born to write' -- Time Out 'Sympathetic, touching, infinitely believable...this is a highly accomplished novel' -- Literary Review 'Strong, straightforward, explicit, evocative ... a very good novel ... It is common to compare Bragg to Hardy, Lawrence and Housman as a novelist of place, but more than anyone he reminds me of JB Priestley. He has the same much underrated strengths' -- Daily Telegraph 'Bragg recaptures a place and society utterly lost to us today...A great achievement... THE SOLDIER'S RETURN is about the turmoil of those who, while fully aware of what is going on inside themselves, remain inariculate not because they are unaware of their thoughts and feelings, but out of stoicism and self-respect - out of an inborn triat which they perversely foster, on the assumption that this approach to life will cause less suffering in the end. It is a good subject for a novelist to explore, and Melvyn Bragg does it most impressively' -- Guardian

About the Author

Melvyn Bragg is the author of sixteen novels including the bestselling Credo and The Maid of Buttermere, and of several works of non-fiction including Speak for England, an oral history of the twentieth century, and Rich, a biography of Richard Burton. He was born in 1939 and educated at Wigton's Nelson Tomlinson Shool and at Oxford where he read history. He is controller of Arts at LWT and President of the National Campaign for the Arts, and in 1998 he was made a life peer. He lives in London and Cumbria..

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Sceptre (August 26, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1840321547
• ISBN-13: 978-1840321548
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 4.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sensitive portrayal of the return, April 29, 2002

By 

AA "ashour001" (Newton, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Soldiers Return Uk (Paperback)

Bragg does a fantastic job bringing this little town from the English North West to life. Bragg's treatment of his characters is very sympathetic and well rounded. His slow meandering way of describing people and event serves to let us know the people very well. Bragg does that not just for Sam and Ellen, but for all the characters we come across in this wonderful work, no cardboard here, they are all very real.

Sam, an ordinary working class man returns home after 7 years fighting on the Japanese front in Burma. Sam returns clearly suffering what we call now post combat trauma, living through it and fighting it. Many from his town were with him in Burma, many never came back, a close friend is suffering a sever case of trauma.

Ellen and Joe lived with Ellen's aunt and uncle during the war. Bragg deals very well with the struggle the family goes through coming together after such a long absence, this at the time of Sam's internal suffering from his memories of the war.

For Sam, a major element of his suffering and to a certain extent his resentment is his feeling that his years of war and service have done little to advance his status in England. Eventually Sam decides with a friend to move to Australia to start a new life; the old life was just too painful to endure after all that he had been through. But Ellen, who lost her parents as a child and grew up with her aunt and uncle, is a fixture of this little town. The town means a great deal to her; it is her anchor. Ellen chooses to stay and Sam decides to go.

Bragg's sequel, Son of War is even better. Both books are wonderful, very human, very real. Bragg does succeed in taking us completely into his world of 40's England

4.0 out of 5 stars A soldier returns to a changed world., September 19, 2005

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Soldier's Return (Paperback)

Melvyn Bragg's The Soldier's Return is the memorable and poignant story of Sam Richardson, a young man from rural England who has fought in the Burma campaign in World War II and who then returns home to a world totally different from the world he has left--everyone and everything has changed.

Sam has seen such atrocity that he is now harder and less willing to show a soft side. His son Joe, now five, doesn't know him. His wife has been successful working two modest jobs and does not want to give them up. Sam has been exposed to the outside world, a world which has shown him how limited his future is in the socially inflexible world of Wigton, while his wife Ellen, in contrast, has been supported by the friendships, traditions, and familiarity of this community, where she knows everyone.

The tensions within the family and within individual characters grow and boil over, as stiff-upper-lip-ishness comes into conflict with the human need to communicate and share, creating real drama and intensity. Bragg's written dialogue is completely natural, and his descriptions and his narrative style are simple, as is his choice of vocabulary. The reader will have no trouble following the various threads of the story while learning much about Cumbria, post-World War II social upheavals, and the kinds of personal problems that may have been typical for many other young soldiers. Mary Whipple

4.0 out of 5 stars Poignant and accomplished but doesn't break new grounds, April 28, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Soldiers Return Uk (Paperback)

Melvyn Bragg's highly acclaimed novel "The Soldier's Return" is a poignant story of a young post-war English family crumbling under the pressure of war induced trauma suffered by the returning spouse and father. Sam's displacement from his domestic environment is mirrored in his wife's and son's futile attempt to rediscover his old familiarity which seemingly evaporated during his long absence. His inability to articulate his feelings about the war locks him into his own world where nobody can reach him. The fragile nexus holding together conjugal relationships is also revealed in the aftermath. The novel opens optimistically with the reunion scene but from there it's downhill all the way. Soon, the nerves start to fray and bouts of anger fill the void. The horrors of war may have reduced Jackie to a mental invalid but Sam is forced to admit that he misses the sense of purpose fighting for kin and country in the jungles of Burma. Coping with the vestiges of the old life is just too much for him. Ellen and Joe are the victims of this cruel irony when Sam decides to build a new future for himself and his family away from home. Bragg captures the tension of disintegrating relationships with a rare economy and insight. He pays great attention to period details with elaborate descriptions of provincial life. The novel is filled with many such passages which will no doubt endear themselves to British readers for the air of familiar nostalgia they create. For the rest of us, they can seem rather interminable. "The Soldier's Return" doesn't break any new grounds. It treads a well trodden path but does it with authenticity and honesty and for that, it is has to be applauded. It is an accomplished piece of work that deserves to be read.