For Want of a Nail

Growing up in an isolated cottage in the hills of Cumberland, Tom knows the bitter cold of shooting expeditions with his grandfather and long evenings spent with his father and mother. But taken away from the hills to live in the small town of Thornton, Tom experiences a tumult of conflicting emotions which he must master before he can come to terms with his identity.

First published in 1965, FOR WANT OF A NAIL was acclaimed as the debut of a distinctive and talented new writer.

“The impression is one of striking individuality - the sort of originality an author achieves when he has really meditated hard about his characters, loved them, watched them, and let them grow”

- Sunday Telegraph

A novel well worth returning to...a vivid and totally original imagination...tableau after tableau is spotlit into brilliant life - Scotsman

A very good novel...sparkles with a keen awareness of both local landscape and character - Cumberland Evening News

Fine, tense writing derived not from books but from passionate observation of particular landscapes and people - Spectator

Melvyn Bragg's first novel, FOR WANT OF A NAIL, was published in 1965 and since then his novels have included THE HIRED MAN, for which he won the Time/Life Silver Pen Award, WITHOUT A CITY WALL, winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, THE SOLDIER'S RETURN, which won the WHSmith Literary Award, and A SON OF WAR and CROSSING THE LINES, both of which were longlisted for the Booker Prize, and his most recent novel REMEMBER ME... He has also written several works of non-fiction including THE ADVENTURE OF ENGLISH and 12 BOOKS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD.

Growing up in an isolated cottage in the hills of Cumberland, Tom knows the bitter cold of shooting expeditions with his grandfather and long evenings spent with his father and mother. But taken away from the hills to live in the small town of Thornton, Tom experiences a tumult of conflicting emotions which he must master before he can come to terms with his identity.First published in 1965, FOR WANT OF A NAIL was acclaimed as the debut of a distinctive and talented new writer.

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