LBC/IRN · London Broadcasting Company

Title

Kiddar’s luck

Genre

Fiction; Biography; Serial

TX Date

Jun 1982

Year of production

1982

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Duration

00:57:30

Description

Kiddar’s Luck, episode 7. Originally published in 1951, Common’s best-known book, the autobiographical Kiddar’s Luck, in which he vividly describes his childhood on the streets of Edwardian Tyneside, as seen through the lens of his adult socialism. There are four chapters on his life before the age of five - quite a feat of memory - while his mother’s alcoholism and the overbearing father whom Jack at length dramatically defies, form the dark background. The book found praise as a slice of Geordie naturalism , a convincing depiction of ‘the other England’ which so beguiled the imagination of contemporary intellectuals. Its irony and subtly bitter universality went largely unrecognised. This episode is read by Edward Wilson.

Contributors

Edward Wilson

Keywords

Books; Jack Common; Autobiographies; Tyneside; Radio book readings; Edwardian period

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