Wednesday Early Closing

In this autobiography Norman Nicholson vividly recaptures long-past times and places and demonstrates their compelling influence on the whole of his life.

He details with loving precision a picture of small-town life in Cumberland in the first three decades of the century, of close-knit family and fiercely independent shopkeepers; he tells of his ancestors, his family, his neighbours, friends and teachers, and enriches his story with anecdotes, impressions and memories - of his triumph as a ''reciter'' at local functions and his failures as a cricketer; of the vigorous social life of the Church, and of Methodism in particular, which brought a warmth and brightness even into the dark days of the Depression.

Later, in a TB sanitorium in Hampshire, Norman Nicholson found himself in a pre-war rural Arcadia, surrounded by people very different from his neighbours at home. The effect on him was startling and disturbing, and when, two years later, he returned to Millom, it was with reluctance and trepidation - though nonetheless with the words, ''I thank God for a lifetime spent in that same town''.