Arthur Morrison

I enjoyed rereading this (and I think the film works too.) Blake Morrison has a very readable style and unusually, the flipping back and forth in time really works for it just how memory works in these sorts of times in our lives. But I wonder if he has done what he set out to do, because I really disliked his father – he is a bully. The term is used by various people but they always seem to downplay its effect on others, and accept it as part of an avuncular persona. I’d have liked to have seen him played by someone of less ‘national-treasure’ status than Jim Broadbent in the film (it was JB wasn’t it?) – though that would have made for less enjoyable viewing.

As for your comment about consistency Pella - I've always thought that an overrated virtue and think we agree that it is our 'inconsistencies' that make us individuals. Who says what's consistent, anyway?