An accomptished - often remarkabte - collection... [marked by] assured prose, observation, pathos and wit. From a youth who impresses girls by wrestling a Swaledale ram to an evening in London, at Ronnie Scott's. with the funniest description of a jazz gig I have ever read... More Grimm reatist than grim reatist. Broady shares with Hockney, another Iocal lad made good, the art of surprising us with a perspective of a place we thought we knew.

Wrestling Jacob 1

In This Block There Lives A Slag ... 15

Songs that Won the War 43

My Hard Friend 55

Mr Personality in the Fields of Poses 71

Bradford 3:

Coddock 83

Tony Harrison 87

The Hands Reveal 99

The Kingfishers ... The Distances 107

A Short Cut Through the Sun 137

Bouncing Back 171

The Tale of the Golden Bath-Taps 207