Clubland: A Radio 4 Book of the Week by Pete Brown
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- ISBN 10 0008457549
- ISBN 13 9780008457549
- Published Jun 09 2022
- Format Hardcover
- Page Count 320
- Language English
- Countries United Kingdom
- Publisher HarperNorth
Publishers Text
Pete Brown is a convivial guide on this journey through the intoxicating history of the working men’s clubs. From the movement’s founding by teetotaller social reformer the Reverend Henry Solly to the booze-soaked mid-century heyday, when more than 7 million Brits were members, this warm-hearted and entertaining book reveals how and why the clubs became the cornerstone of Britain’s social life – offering much more than cheap Federation Bitter and chicken in a basket.Often dismissed as relics of a bygone age – bastions of bigotry and racism – Brown reminds us that long before the days of Phoenix Nights, 3,000-seat venues routinely played host to stars like Shirley Bassey, Louis Armstrong, and the Bee Gees, offering entertainment for all the family, and close to home at that. Britain’s best-known comedians made reputations through a thick miasma of smoke, from Sunniside to Skegness. For a young man growing up in the pit town of Barnsley this was a radiant wonderland that transformed those who entered.
Brown explores the clubs’ role in defining masculinity, community and class identity for generations of men in Britain’s industrial towns. They were, at their best, a vehicle for social mobility and self-improvement, run as cooperatives for working people by working people: an informal, community-owned pre-cursor to the Welfare State.
As the movement approaches its 160th anniversary, this exuberant book brings to life the thrills and the spills of a cultural phenomenon that might still be rescued from irrelevance.
Other cookbooks by this author
- The Apple Orchard: A story of our most English fruit
- The Guide to Welsh Perry and Cider
- Hops and Glory: One Man's Search for the Beer That Built the British Empire
- Hops and Glory: One Man's Search for the Beer That Built the British Empire
- Hops and Glory: One Man's Search for the Beer That Built the British Empire
- Man Walks into a Pub: A Sociable History of Beer
- Man Walks into a Pub: A Sociable History of Beer
- Man Walks into a Pub: A Sociable History of Beer
- Miracle Brew: Hops, Barley, Water, Yeast and the Nature of Beer
- Pie Fidelity: In Defence of British Food
- The Pub: A Cultural Institution - from Country Inns to Craft Beer Bars and Corner Locals
- Shakespeare's Pub: A Barstool History of London as Seen Through the Windows of Its Oldest Pub - The George Inn
- Three Sheets to the Wind
- Three Sheets to the Wind: One Man's Quest for the Meaning of Beer
- Three Sheets to the Wind: One man's Quest for the Meaning of Beer
- World's Best Cider: Taste, Tradition and Terroir, from Somerset to Seattle
- World's Best Ciders: Taste, Tradition, and Terroir
