by David Storey
First published 2021
David Storey begins his story as the third son of a coalminer in Wakefield, where hardship shapes his early years. Leeds Rugby League Club purchases his contract, pulling him into professional sports before he breaks away to study at the Slade School of Art. In post-war London, he teaches in seventeen struggling East End schools, witnessing scenes of deprivation that shock him. Throughout his journey, he carries the weight of his eldest brother's childhood death, a loss that feeds the depression that grips him for most of his life. He addresses much of his story directly to this lost brother, exploring how grief and mental illness shadow his path. Despite these struggles, Storey builds a remarkable career as a writer. He experiences exciting periods in New York, forms meaningful friendships in theater with figures like Joycelyn Herbert, Ralph Richardson, and Lindsay Anderson, celebrates early success with This Sporting Life, and ultimately wins the Booker Prize for Saville. His memoir traces how a working-class boy transforms personal pain into artistic achievement.
Genres: 20th-century, autobiography, british-literature, biography-memoir
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: grief, mental-health, personal-journey
Setting: East End, Leeds, London, New York, Wakefield
Period: Post-War
352 pages · Hardcover · Faber & Faber
Content warnings: depression, mental-illness