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Children become adults, and Winnie and Harry grow frail, but there are still surprises in store. Concluded by Richard Stacey.

Abridged from Richard Benson's epic family saga The Valley, the focus of this Book of the Week is on the story of the author's grandmother - Winnie Hollingworth (1909 - 2002) - and her life in the mining villages of the Dearne Valley in South Yorkshire.

This remarkable social history draws on years of research, interviews and anecdote which chart generations of carousing and banter, tears and fights all set against the background of a close-knit community where almost everybody worked either in the mines or the mills.

Richard Benson's first book, THE FARM which related the story of his own parents and brother and their livelihood in the Yorkshire Wolds was described as ' an extraordinary mixture of hardness and tenderness, wit and slog.. wonderful ' Ronald Blythe author of Akenfield. It went on to be a no.1 bestseller.

This new book is a powerful and moving achievement - it follows Winnie from her first romantic encounter: 'her heart beating hard and fast down in her whalebone and elastic' to her final years sitting in the lounge of a long rubber-tiled room with high-backed chairs around the walls.. ' where 'the residents either roost mutely or chat while their eyes search the room for a younger person who might play the piano for them.'

Ep 5. Children become adults, and Winnie and Harry grow frail, but there are still surprises in store.

Read by Richard Stacey
PRODUCER: JILL WATERS

Abridged and directed by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 4Extra.

15 minutes

Last on

Sat 23 Mar 2019 02:45

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Credits

Role Contributor
Reader Richard Stacey
Director Jill Waters
Producer Jill Waters
Abridger Jill Waters

Broadcasts

  • Fri 2 May 2014 09:45
  • Sat 3 May 2014 00:30
  • Fri 12 Feb 2016 14:45
  • Sat 13 Feb 2016 02:45
  • Fri 22 Mar 2019 14:45
  • Sat 23 Mar 2019 02:45

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