The Working Class Library

This Sporting Life by David Storey

In this episode of the Working Class Library, David Peace joins Claire Malcolm, Chief Executive of New Writing North, and Richard Benson, editor of The Bee, to discuss David Storey’s classic, controversial 1960 kitchen-sink novel, This Sporting Life. This Sporting Life, said The Guardian, “provided one of the great energising shocks of the 1960s, a blast of energy smashing at the dullness, complacency and hypocrisy of class-ridden Britain.” Written by Storey when he was still a professional rugby league player, it is a story of frustrated sexual relationships, money, power and celebrity, set in the dark, smoky world of rugby league in the industrial North. In 1963, Lindsay Anderson turned it into a film starring Richard Harris and Rachel Roberts, who were nominated for Oscars. Storey wrote the screenplay. Book and film are now recognised as classics. David Peace grew up a few miles from where Storey had lived in Wakefield and, of course, has written extensively about sport and class in the industrial North, most recently with his novel Munichs. He joins Claire and Richard in the studio to consider This Sporting Life’s enduring appeal and what it means to him as a novelist. David also talks about how encouraging it was to know that writers such as Storey, John Braine, Stan Barstow and Keith Waterhouse had come from working-class communities local to his parental home.

Angelas Ashes by Frank McCourt

In the sixth episode of the Working Class Library, Kevin Barry joins Claire Malcolm, chief executive of New Writing North, and Richard Benson, editor of The Bee, to discuss Frank McCourt’s 1996 memoir Angela’s Ashes. McCourt’s account of his poverty-stricken childhood in New York and Limerick has sold ten million copies to date, and has been translated into more than 25 languages. Previously reluctant to believe anyone would be interested in the story of a poor family, the former schoolteacher waited until he was in his 60s to write and publish the book. As Kevin Barry explains, the scale of its success, and perhaps its false association with the 'misery memoir' genre, can obscure the brilliance of McCourt’s craft. In their discussion, recorded live at Hexham Book Festival, Kevin, Claire and Richard set it firmly in the Irish literary firmament. Kevin provides special insight into the Irish setting of the story, as he reveals that his father knew the McCourts, and even went to the same school – Leamy’s – where young Frank was educated. At the end, we ask if it deserves a place on the shelves of our imaginary library of great books by and about ordinary people.

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend

For the fifth episode of the Working Class Library, the novelist David Nicholls joins Claire Malcolm, CEO of New Writing North, and Richard Benson, editor of The Bee, and to discuss Sue Townsend’s 1982 novel The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾.  Having initially been written for, and broadcast on, BBC Radio 4, The Secret Diary was the United Kingdom’s bestselling book of the 1980s, and to date has sold over twenty million copies, and been translated into almost fifty languages. It transformed the fortunes of Townsend, who had previously lived in dire poverty as a single mother after being born into south Leicester working class.  Many readers and writers who grew up with the novel name it as a major influence on them, and in the podcast, superfan David Nicholls considers how and why this is. Together, hosts and guest together show why if anything, Mole is underrated as a work of literature. Finally, we ask if it deserves a place on the shelves of our imaginary library of great books by and about ordinary people.

Larkrise to Candleford by Flora Thompson

For this episode, Richard and Claire are joined by novelist Sarah Hall to consider Flora Thompson’s memoir Lark Rise to Candleford.  These days, Lark Rise to Candleford is perhaps the best-known English rural memoir in print. Thanks in no small part to the BBC’s 2000s TV adaptation, and historic class-washing in its jackets and illustrations, it is commonly thought of as a rather cosily nostalgic book. In reality, however, it is strongly class-conscious and political. Why is Thompson’s trilogy not celebrated as a classic of working-class literature?

Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh

For this episode of the Working Class Library, the writer Craig McLean joins Richard Benson, editor of The Bee, and Claire Malcolm, CEO of New Writing North, to discuss Irvine Welsh’s 1993 novel Trainspotting. Trainspotting has become, as McLean says, a multi-media “literary industrial complex”, with prequels, sequels, films, theatre productions and a mooted TV series having given its characters lives far beyond the pages of the original book. Given its fame, and the dark slapstick with which it is sometimes associated, it is easy to overlook Welsh’s serious intent in writing the novel.  Using heavy dialect, he set out to write a representative account of a generation’s suffering under 1980s economic policies, a popularisation of heroin, and an AIDS epidemic. He has since made it clear that he intended this to be part of a working-class saga. In the podcast, aided by McLean’s recollections of Edinburgh’s 1990 book scene, we ask if it deserves a place on the shelves of our imaginary library of great books by and about ordinary people.