Imprint
- Virago
Fiction, Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)
From the author of THE NAMING OF ELIZA QUINN comes a richly atmospheric and evocative story of ambition and opportunity, providence and survival. In the style of Margaret Forster and Lesley Glaister, TURN AGAIN HOME explores a family's bond of unspoken love and loyalty.
Gorton, Manchester. 1930. Greyhound racing at Belle Vue, the buses going up and down Hyde Road, the siren of Peacock's foundry going off every night at six. This is Bessie and Sam Holloway's place, home for Nell and little brother Bobby and older step-child Violet. Precious visits from Dad's sister Benny, a Queen of the music hall trailing clouds of glory and whisky, provide infrequent brushes with glamour.
Nell grows up to work in a factory and there, from the tailgate of a truck in the yard, she first hears fellow factory worker Harry Caplin play trombone break on the old jazz classic, Clarinet Marmalade. Harry's talent will take him far and introduce him to such jazz legends as Louis Armstrong and Jack Teagarden; but not as far as poor feckless Bobby, who finds himself fighting in the jungles of Malaya.
Spanning the twentieth century, this is a poignant story about a brother and a sister and three generations of a northern working-class family.
More books by Carol Birch
Praise for Turn Again Home
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This absorbing tale...gets under the skin of its rich characters and brings their encounters alive. - Woman's Own.
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A profoundly impressive piece of work. - Guardian.
Carol Birch
Carol Birch was born in 1951 in Manchester and went to Keele University. She has lived in London, southwest Ireland and now Lancaster. For her first novel, LIFE IN THE PALACE, she won the 1988 David Higham Award for the Best First Novel of the Year. In 1991 she won the prestigious Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize with THE FOG LINE.
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