"1 'Alive with autobiographical energies and characters of flesh-and-blood immediacy... deeply humane and acutely truthful' - Peter Kemp, Sunday Times 2 '[A] perceptive, sparely-written novel... The trace of memory, Bragg shows us, is an enduring inheritance for each and every one of us.' - Lisa Jardine, The Times 3 'Full of a simple poetry that is deeply evocative... with a depth of affection that is genuinely moving. A Son of War is even better than The Soldier's Return.' - Carol Birch, Independent 4 'Shot through with blazing integrity and authenticity' - Val Hennessy, Daily Mail 5 'I can't think of a contemporary novel I've read this year that I like quite so much.'

Melvyn Bragg's first novel, For Want of a Nail, was published in 1965 and since then his novels have included The Hired Man, Without a City Wall, winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, Credo, The Maid of Buttermere and The Soldier's Return, which was published to huge critical acclaim in 1999 and won the WHSmith Literary Award. He has also written several works of non-fiction including Speak for England, Rich, a biography of Richard Burton and On Giants' Shoulders, a history of science based on his BBC radio series. He was born in 1939 and educated at Wigton's Nelson Tomlinson Shool and at Oxford where he read history. He is controller of Arts at LWT and President of the National Campaign for the Arts, and in 1998 he was made a life peer. He lives in London and Cumbria.