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

Review\nMark'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\nThis 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\nMoving . . . A work of triumphs ― Irish Times\nWritten with verve . . . [Hodkinson] is a hero ― Daily Mail\nEntertaining ― Financial Times\nReading this memoir is to realise there is no better tool for social mobility than a book . . . lovely ― Daily Mail\nDeeply poignant . . . powerful ― Sunday Times\nAbsorbing . . . truly impressive ― Brisbane Times\nEffusive, entertaining ― Times Literary Supplement\nA 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\nThere is music, family life, and a lot more besides in this memoir, but Hodkinson's thoughts on reading are ever-present ― Bath Life\nA 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\nMark 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.\nFast 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.\nSo 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).\nMark also writes movingly about his troubled grandad who, much the same as books, taught him to wander, and wonder.