Ruskin Park

'. Ruskin Park. is so much more than a memoir. It is tribute toan individual woman and a whole generation and class. ' - Justin Webb,. The Sunday Times. 'Ruskin Park. is Rory Cellan-Jones's touching tribute toboth his parents, but particularly to the mother he came to know more fullyfrom the letters she left behind' -. Daily Mail. 'A captivating family detective story and apoignant social history of Britain. ' -. Observer. Can we ever really know the truth about ourparents. From the popular journalist, podcaster and tweeter about his rescuedog #SophiefromRomania comes a moving memoir in search of the truth behind hisisolated childhood and absent father. Rory Cellan-Jones knew he was the child of a brief love affair between twounmarried BBC employees. But until his mother died and he found a previouslyunknown file labelled 'For Rory' he had no idea of their beginnings or ending, and why his peculiarly isolated childhood had so tested the bond between himand his mother. 'For Rory, ' his mother had written on the file 'in the hope>This is a compelling account of what Rory uncovered in the papers, letters anddiaries; a relationship between two colleagues (two romantics) and therestrictive forces of post-war respectability and prejudice that ended it. Itis also an evocation of the progressive, centrifugal force at the centre of all>Both tender and troubling, the drama moves from wartime radio broadcasts, tothe glamour of 1950s television studios, to the golden era of BBC drama. Hisfather may have directed The Forsyte Saga. and Rory may have watched him from the corridors, but he would never actuallymeet him until much later in adulthood. Until then Rory's life was bound to the>'I loved this highly evocative, unpretentiousmemoir. It's a small-scale BBC drama in itself. ' -. The Times.