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"The rediscovery of Priestley as both novelist and playwright is long overdue. As a writer of fiction he belongs in a great English realist tradition that includes Bennett, Wells and Galsworthy. As a dramatist, he had a rare capacity to explore ideas and paint a vision of a better future. He is due for re-evaluation and the re-publication of Bright Day is a vital stage in that process." Michael Billington, Arts Critic, The Guardian."
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The story is that of disillusioned and stale Hollywood scriptwriter Gregory Dawson. A chance encounter in a Cornish hotel sends him back to the Bruddersford (Bradford) of his youth before the First World War. Caught in the past, Dawson relives his time within the magic circle of the Alington family, days on the moors, his work in a wool office and his first tentative steps towards becoming an author. With the energy of a creative act, Dawson allows the years he'd forgotten about to take shape and join hands with the present. Summing up his recollections of the past and the realisation of his present role in a sterile world, he is led towards an entirely new conception of the future. Dawson slowly comes back to life and sees the world with renewed energy and zest.
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
My parents had an old book club edition of 'Bright Day' which I enjoyed reading in my teens. At that time I liked it because it's written from the viewpoint of a clever but rather lonely young Yorkshireman and would-be writer (Gregory), who is beguiled by a charismatic family - a situation which echoed my own life at the time of reading it. The story of Gregory's youth ends with tragedy but is interwoven with a more hopeful theme of the (now middle-aged) Gregory, who has become a successful Hollywood scriptwriter, solving some of the mysteries surrounding past events and also looking forward to helping change society through film. Coming back to the book 3 decades later, I'm fascinated by the descriptions of bygone Yorkshire life and society. The 'modern' section of the book, in which Gregory looks to a better future in social-realist film-making, is itself now a historical curiosity. I also appreciate the humour in the book much more than before. The new hardback edition, with photos and explanatory material about Priestley and the novel itself, is nicely produced and the photos of the area where the story is set definitely add to the experience. Unfortunately the additional material is full of typos which is such a pity in an otherwise laudable effort to bring this neglected classic to a new audience.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Gregory Dawson, a middle-aged, unmarried film script writer, visits a remote hotel on the Cornish coast in order to finish his latest commission. There, the playing, by the hotel's resident musicians, of a single short movement from a Schubert Piano Trio strips away layer after layer of remembrance of Dawson's youth in the West Riding city of Bruddersford. In particular he remembers his friendship with the charming and lively Alington family. He had quickly fallen under their spell but the magic had been savagely destroyed by subsequent events. Thus does Priestley develop in this, one of his finest novels (first published in 1946), the theme of disillusionment, the shattering of euphoria,'the bright day that brings forth the adder'. In narrative terms the novel alternates between the experiences of the young Dawson and his current, increasingly fraught relationship with the world of commercial film-making. The ending reflects Priestley's hopes for post-World War II Britain : Dawson (a character with arguably autobiographical overtones) decides to throw in his lot with a group of mostly young film-makers dedicated to making 'real pictures'. His meeting, through this group, with a woman whom he knew as a child in Bruddersford holds out the promise of personal as well as professional fulfilment. The contemporary narrative is less interesting than the Bruddersford scenes but the novel as a whole finds Priestley at his best. The appeal of this edition of the book is enhanced by much additional material, including many interesting photographs, a 'Literary Tour' of 'Bright Day' and testimonies from a number of eminent figures in the world of the arts and politics.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
'Bright Day' is my favourite JB Priestley novel, and from time to time I find myself buying another copy to give away. This is a really nice hardcover edition with some interesting additional material including an introduction by the author's son Tom Priestley. The price was amazingly reasonable, too.
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