The untold story of a British institutionBrilliant. Alan JohnsonCompelling. David KynastonThe beer drinkers Bill Bryson. Times Literary SupplementFerment Magazines Best Beer Book of the YearPete Brown is a convivial guide on this journey through the intoxicating history of the working mens clubs. From the movements founding by teetotaller social reformer the Reverend Henry Solly to the boozesoaked midcentury heyday, when more than 7 million Brits were members, this warmhearted and entertaining book reveals how and why the clubs became the cornerstone of Britains social life offering much more than cheap Federation Bitter and chicken in a basket.Often dismissed as relics of a bygone age bastions of bigotry and racism Brown reminds us that long before the days of Phoenix Nights, 3,000seat venues routinely played host to stars like Shirley Bassey, Louis Armstrong, and the Bee Gees, offering entertainment for all the family, and close to home at that. Britains bestknown comedians made reputations through a thick miasma of smoke, from Sunniside to Skegness. For a young man growing up in the pit town of Barnsley this was a radiant wonderland that transformed those who entered.Brown explores the clubs role in defining masculinity, community and class identity for generations of men in Britains industrial towns. They were, at their best, a vehicle for social mobility and selfimprovement, run as cooperatives for working people by working people an informal, communityowned...

Binding: Paperback;320 pages; Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers; Classification: AV; Weight: 340 g; Dimensions: 197 x 129 x 21

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