'I drew my first breath on the 28th of January 1935, which was quite a good time for a future writer to be born in England...'
The only child in a lower-middle-class London family, David Lodge inherited his artistic genes from his musician father and his Catholic faith from his Irish-Belgian mother. Four years old when World War II began, David grew to maturity through decades of great social and cultural change - giving him plenty to write about.
Candid, witty and insightful, Quite a Good Time to be Born illuminates a period of transition in British society, and charts the evolution of a writer whose works have become classics in his own lifetime. What one takes away from this half-memoir is the self-portrait of an extraordinarily good, wrongly modest man; a distinguished scholar, and one of the finest of current novelists -- John Sutherland * Spectator * As a piece of reportage from the third quarter of the English 20th century this is a sociologist's paradise * Guardian * An outstanding memoir... Lucid and witty * Irish Times * A fascinating and moving read * Financial Times * Quite a Good Time to be Born is a record of success, free of boasting or malice. Anyone with some knowledge of academia or the literary world will find it full of interest -- Allan Massie * Scotsman *
Quite A Good Time to be Born: A Memoir: 1935-1975