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Book Cover for: No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy: Memoirs of a Working-Class Reader, Mark Hodkinson

No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy: Memoirs of a Working-Class Reader

Mark Hodkinson

Critic Reviews

Good

Based on 6 reviews on

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Mark Hodkinson grew up among dark satanic mills in a house with just one book: Folklore, Myths and Legends of Britain. His dad kept it on top of a wardrobe with other items of great worth - wedding photographs and Mark's National Cycling Proficiency certificate. If Mark wanted to read it, he was warned not to crease the pages or slam shut the covers.

Fast forward to today, and Mark still lives in Rochdale snugly ensconced (or is that buried?) in a 'book cave' surrounded by 3,500 titles - at the last count. He is an author, journalist and publisher.

So this is his story of growing up a working-class lad during the 1970s and 1980s. It's about schools (bad), music (good) and the people (some mad, a few sane), and pre-eminently and profoundly the books and authors (some bad, mostly good) that led the way, shaped a life. If only coincidentally, it relates how writing and reading has changed, as the Manor House novel gave way to the kitchen sink drama and working-class writers found the spotlight (if only briefly).

Mark also writes movingly about his troubled grandad who, much the same as books, taught him to wander, and wonder.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Canongate Books
  • Publish Date: Apr 12nd, 2022
  • Pages: 256
  • Language: English
  • Edition: Main - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.58in - 5.51in - 1.42in - 1.05lb
  • EAN: 9781786899972
  • Categories: ReadersPersonal MemoirsEditors, Journalists, Publishers

About the Author

Mark Hodkinson has written for The Times for two decades, three years as a columnist. He has also contributed to the Observer, Guardian, Mail on Sunday and others. He is the author of Blue Moon: Down Among the Dead Men with Manchester City, which is regularly cited as a football classic, and Believe in the Sign, which was longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year. His novels include The Last Mad Surge of Youth, which was nominated as Q's Novel of the Year, and That Summer Feeling. He owns Pomona Books and has published titles by Simon Armitage, Barry Hines, Ian McMillan, Ray Gosling, Stuart Murdoch (of Belle and Sebastian), Bob Stanley (Saint Etienne) and many more. He also commissioned and edited the much-acclaimed biography J.D. Salinger: A Life, which was made into a film starring Nicholas Hoult. He lives in Lancashire.

markhodkinson.com

More books by Mark Hodkinson

Book Cover for: Opening the Gates of Hell: The Untold Story of Herbert Kenny, the Man Who Discovered Bergen-Belsen, Mark Hodkinson
Book Cover for: Queen: The Early Years, Mark Hodkinson
Book Cover for: No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy: Memoirs of a Working-Class Reader, Mark Hodkinson
Book Cover for: Marianne Faithfull, Mark Hodkinson
Book Cover for: The Overcoat Men: How Two Unsung Heroes Thwarted a Secret Plan to Kill Off a Football Club, Mark Hodkinson
Book Cover for: Opening the Gates of Hell: The Untold Story of Herbert Kenny, the Man Who Discovered Belsen, Mark Hodkinson
Book Cover for: The Longest Winter: A Season with England's Worst Ever Football Team, Mark Hodkinson

Critics’ reviews

Praise for this book

Mark's journey into his own cocoon of books is a deeply personal tale but one with universal themes for all young lives shaped and transformed in some way by the written word . . . Thoughtful and engaging--MARK RADCLIFFE
This is a book about the north; it is also about publishing, writing and music, but it transcends its subjects and meets the criterion Hodkinson sets out in his preface: "The best books, the same as the best days, skitter on the breeze. They go their own way"-- "Observer"
Moving . . . A work of triumphs-- "Irish Times"
Written with verve . . . [Hodkinson] is a hero-- "Daily Mail"
Entertaining-- "Financial Times"
Reading this memoir is to realise there is no better tool for social mobility than a book . . . lovely-- "Daily Mail"
Deeply poignant . . . powerful-- "Sunday Times"
Absorbing . . . truly impressive-- "Brisbane Times"
Effusive, entertaining-- "Times Literary Supplement"
A memoir refracted through literature and its impact on the author's life. . . He writes with sharp humour and unsentimentally . . . An enjoyable and uplifting read-- "Morning Star"
There is music, family life, and a lot more besides in this memoir, but Hodkinson's thoughts on reading are ever-present-- "Bath Life"
A charming, passionate tribute to books and reading, the inner life they nourish, and the community they offer to outsiders - from the perspective of someone who discovered books in the same way they discovered punk music (another passion): as rebellion-- "InDaily"