Published to coincide with the Granada TV series, this volume incorporates "Second From Last in the Sack Race" and "Pratt of the Argus". Growing up in the 1930s and 1940s in the North of England, Henry Pratt's life becomes a search for a means of survival and Henry develops an intriguing technique.
Driven to desperation by the rat race and the unpunctuality of Britain's trains, Reggie's small eccentricites escalate to the extreme, until finally he leaves the unacceptable face of capitalism behind by driving off in a stolen motorised jelly. číst celé
It is 1957. The Suez Crisis has been and gone. Henry Pratt has completed his National Service and is putting his unsuccessful career as Thurmarsh's cub journalist behind him. Leaving Yorkshire, he's taking on a new role and a new challenge - working for the Cucumber Marketing Board in Leeds. Stumbling through the fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties, Henry Pratt accumulates jobs, marriages and children on the way as he embarks on a touching, painful and hilarious switchback ride through a divided Britain.
Tragédie se dějí pořád, i tehdy, když se hned vedle odehrává komedie. Můžete jet na výlet a v první vesnici za městem přejet kočku, v tu chvíli káně na louce sezobne krtka a za zatáčkou to do vás napálí SUV. Tedy ne do vás, ale do paní Hollinghurstové, takže z Jamese Hollinghursta je vdovec. Netuší, kam jeho žena jela, ale velmi se diví, že si s sebou vzala střevíce na jehlovém podpatku. A má starosti s pohřbem. Jak se takový pohřeb vlastně dělá? A co když vás vaše sekretářka chce speciálně utěšit a nedá si to vymluvit?.
