No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy: Memoirs of a Working-Class Reader

by Mark Hodkinson

Overview

Mark Hodkinson grew up among the terrace houses of Rochdale in a house with just one book. Today, Mark is an author, journalist and publisher. He still lives in Rochdale but is now surrounded by 3,500 titles - at the last count.

No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy is his story of growing up a working-class lad during the 1970s and 1980s. It's about the schools, the music, the people - but pre-eminently and profoundly the books and authors that led the way and shaped his life. It's about a family who didn't see the point of reading, and a troubled grandad who taught Mark the power of stories. It's also a story of how writing and reading has changed over the last five decades.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781838850012
Publisher:	Canongate Books
Publication date:	10/03/2023
Edition description:	Main
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.08(w) x 7.80(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Mark Hodkinson has written for The Times for two decades, three years as a columnist. He has also contributed to the Observer, Guardian, Mail on Sunday and others. He is the author of Blue Moon: Down Among the Dead Men with Manchester City, which is regularly cited as a football classic, and Believe in the Sign, which was longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year. His novels include The Last Mad Surge of Youth, which was nominated as Q's Novel of the Year, and That Summer Feeling. He owns Pomona Books and has published titles by Simon Armitage, Barry Hines, Ian McMillan, Ray Gosling, Stuart Murdoch (of Belle and Sebastian), Bob Stanley (Saint Etienne) and many more. He also commissioned and edited the much-acclaimed biography J.D. Salinger: A Life, which was made into a film starring Nicholas Hoult.

markhodkinson.com

Editorial Reviews

Mark Hodkinson is one of the great unsung heroes of literature . . . With verve, insight and perfectly-captured period detail, he reminds us that not only are books sacred objects that should be available to everyone, but also that working-class voices remain more marginalised and underrepresented than ever. No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy redresses this imbalance beautifully, and in a just world will kickstart a long-overdue working class literary renaissance

BENJAMIN MYERS

This is an impassioned hymn of praise and declaration of love for that complex cultural object, the book. Anyone who has ever read, written or published a book will find their heart's pages turning as they sink joyfully into these craftsman-built paragraphs

IAN McMILLAN

Some kids grow up dreaming of fast cars and fancy clothes. Others just want books and records. If that was you, particularly if you grew up in a small northern town where people said the word "book" the way they said the word "voodoo", this is probably your story. Even if you didn't, chances are you'll love it

DAVID HEPWORTH

There is music, family life, and a lot more besides in this memoir, but Hodkinson's thoughts on reading are ever-present

Bath Life

Absorbing . . . truly impressive

Brisbane Times

This is a book about the north; it is also about publishing, writing and music, but it transcends its subjects and meets the criterion Hodkinson sets out in his preface: “The best books, the same as the best days, skitter on the breeze. They go their own way

Observer

A memoir refracted through literature and its impact on the author’s life. . . He writes with sharp humour and unsentimentally . . . An enjoyable and uplifting read

Morning Star

Entertaining

Financial Times

Deeply poignant . . . powerful

Sunday Times

A charming, passionate tribute to books and reading, the inner life they nourish, and the community they offer to outsiders – from the perspective of someone who discovered books in the same way they discovered punk music (another passion): as rebellion

InDaily

Effusive, entertaining

Times Literary Supplement

Written with verve . . . [Hodkinson] is a hero

Daily Mail

Moving . . . A work of triumphs

Irish Times

Mark's journey into his own cocoon of books is a deeply personal tale but one with universal themes for all young lives shaped and transformed in some way by the written word . . . Thoughtful and engaging

MARK RADCLIFFE

"Mark's journey into his own cocoon of books is a deeply personal tale but one with universal themes for all young lives shaped and transformed in some way by the written word . . . Thoughtful and engaging" MARK RADCLIFFE

From the Publisher