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- Sceptre
- Sceptre
- Sceptre
- Sceptre
Narrator
Malcolm SinclairRuntime
8hr 6m
Fiction, Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), Historical fiction
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Imprint
Sceptre
- Paperback Jun 9, 2026 | 9781399756051 | RRP $24.99 Pre-Order
- Paperback Jan 15, 2002 | 9780340770900 | RRP $24.99 Buy Now
- Audiobook Dec 3, 2015 | 9781473623453 | RRP $46.99 Buy Now
- e-Book Jul 19, 2012 | 9781848942547 | RRP $12.99 Buy Now
Play Sample0:00 -
Imprint
Sceptre
- Paperback Jun 9, 2026 | 9781399756051 | RRP $24.99 Pre-Order
- Paperback Jan 15, 2002 | 9780340770900 | RRP $24.99 Buy Now
- Audiobook Dec 3, 2015 | 9781473623453 | RRP $46.99 Buy Now
- e-Book Jul 19, 2012 | 9781848942547 | RRP $12.99 Buy Now
Play Sample0:00 -
Imprint
Sceptre
- Paperback Jun 9, 2026 | 9781399756051 | RRP $24.99 Pre-Order
- Paperback Jan 15, 2002 | 9780340770900 | RRP $24.99 Buy Now
- Audiobook Dec 3, 2015 | 9781473623453 | RRP $46.99 Buy Now
- e-Book Jul 19, 2012 | 9781848942547 | RRP $12.99 Buy Now
Play Sample0:00 -
Imprint
Sceptre
- Paperback Jun 9, 2026 | 9781399756051 | RRP $24.99 Pre-Order
- Paperback Jan 15, 2002 | 9780340770900 | RRP $24.99 Buy Now
- Audiobook Dec 3, 2015 | 9781473623453 | RRP $46.99 Buy Now
- e-Book Jul 19, 2012 | 9781848942547 | RRP $12.99 Buy Now
Play Sample0:00
Bragg's acclaimed story of one family's experience of the social and cultural upheaval of England as it moves into the twentieth century
BOOK ONE IN THE CUMBRIAN TRILOGY
'An intensely moving, deeply worked book'
Sunday Telegraph
'Extraordinary'
The Times
'A magnificently strong and sinewy novel'
Sunday Mirror
In rural Cumbria at the turn of the nineteenth century, John Tallentire and his wife, Emily, struggle to make ends meet. First as a farm labourer, then a coal miner, John dreams of breaking free from his humiliating status as a 'hired man'. But in a rapidly changing world, the couple find themselves caught between the demands of daily survival and striving for a better life.
Praise for The Hired Man
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An intensely moving, deeply worked book - Sunday Telegraph
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It is an extraordinary blend of delicacy and harsh simplicity which makes Melvyn Bragg a remarkable novelist. The perception with which he traces the currents of feeling between John and Emily, the gathering and receding of emotion, have a cumulative power of enormous conviction, a steady hardening of experience which is deeply unsettling and moving - The Times
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A magnificently strong and sinewy novel - Sunday Mirror
Melvyn Bragg
Melvyn Bragg was born in Wigton, Cumbria, in 1939. He went to the local Grammar School and then to Wadham College, Oxford. He joined the BBC in 1961, and published his first novel, For Want of a Nail, in 1965.
He left the BBC and continued to write novels which include The Soldier's Return (WH Smith Literary Award), Without a City Wall (Mail on Sunday John Llewellyn Rhys Prize) and Now Is the Time (Parliamentary Book Award 2016). A Place in England, Son of War and Crossing the Lines were all nominated for the Booker Prize. His non-fiction includes The Adventure of English and The Book of Books, and his first memoir, Back in the Day, was published in 2022 to critical acclaim.
He edited and presented The South Bank Show from 1977 and hosted the BBC Radio 4 programme In Our Time from 1998. He has now retired from both. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society and of The British Academy. He was given a Peerage in 1998 and a Companion of Honour in 2017.
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