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.
A splendid Dickensian sweep of a book - Observer
A decent and intelligent novel, one which can be read, and will be read, with a great deal of pleasure - Allan Massie, Scotsman
As a guide to media London, the novel is essential reading - T.J. Binyon, Times Literary Supplement
The very good Bragg has forced a complex contemporary plot to work magic - David Hughes, Mail on Sunday
Bragg has scarcely ever written better...A state of England message transfused by fiction - Tom Adair, Scotland on Sunday
Melvyn Bragg writes with a lyrical nostalgia which is as important to the novel as his energy - Penelope Fitzgerald, Evening Standard
Melvyn Bragg is a writer and broadcaster whose first novel, For Want of a Nail, was published in 1965. His novels since include The Maid of Buttermere, The Soldier's Return, A Son of War, Credo and Now is the Time, which won the Parliamentary Book Award for fiction in 2016. His books have also been awarded the Time/Life Silver Pen Award, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the WHSmith Literary Award, and have been longlisted three times for the Booker Prize (including the Lost Man Booker Prize).
He has also written several works of non-fiction, including The Adventure of English and The Book of Books about the King James Bible.
He lives in London and Cumbria.