Grace is a gifted child who has a chance, through education, to escape the poverty of her background. Then an unjust incident, in which she comes to the rescue of her vulnerable sister, destroys that slim opportunity. She overcomes the setback and is doing well until a greater tragedy – her beloved sister’s accidental death – shatters the moorings of her world and sets her on a heartbreaking path that involves single motherhood, abandonment by the father of her child, and giving up her baby. Mary is that baby, and both hers and Grace’s stories are narrated by Mary’s son, John. This is memoir in the guise of fiction, and Melvyn Bragg unveils his mother’s and grandmother’s lives in a way that will live long in the memory. The small Cumbrian town of the writer’s youth is vividly evoked, as are the beauty of the scenery and the rich and varied history of that northwestern English county. What stands out most, though, is the loving and respectful way the two brave women at the heart of Bragg’s story are brought to life.
