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I Didn't Know You Cared
297 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1973
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
February 4, 2017
Another book about the Brandon family, somewhere in northern England in the 1960s, sequel to A touch of Daniel. Carter and Pat Brandon, after two years of marriage, find that living in a young executive housing estate with architect-designed homes isn't all it is cracked up to be. Carter's uncle Mort decides to cash in his life savings to buy three allotments, where he goes to live in a retired railway carriage and proudly grows weeds, among which cousin Celia searches for healing herbs to cure Uncle Mort's wasting disease.
This is the third time I've read this book, 40 years after the first time, and I think it is still my favourite of Peter Tinniswood's Brandon quartet. Like the others, it is a slice of life, a picture of life in 1960s northern England. As I noted in my review of A touch of Daniel, it is now frozen in time as well as in space, a picture of a way of life that has passed, of pre-Thatcher Britain.
I also think, after the third reading, that it would not be unfair to compare Tinniswood to Charles Dickens. What Dickens did for 19th-century southern England, Tinniswood has done for 20th-century northern England. He has created larger-than-life characters that typify the place and period. There is Pat Brandon, who talks in advertising slogans, trying to be a yuppie. There is Uncle Mort, who in many respects is just the opposite. In the age of the youthful rebellion of the hippies, Uncle Mort was an elderly rebel, defying convention and social expectations expressed by his sister, Annie Brandon, Carter Brandon's mother.
So Peter Tinniswood portrays everyday life with a kind of Dickensian satire and dark humour. Some of the problems of the 1960s, which became obsessions in later decades, like racism, sexism, pollution and capitalist greed, are also present and treated with satirical humour, and occasional outbursts from the normally taciturn Carter Brandon, who otherside says little other than "Aye. Well. Mm."
Yes, the more I think about it, the more I think Peter Tinniswood deserves recognition as the 20th-century Dickens.
This is the third time I've read this book, 40 years after the first time, and I think it is still my favourite of Peter Tinniswood's Brandon quartet. Like the others, it is a slice of life, a picture of life in 1960s northern England. As I noted in my review of A touch of Daniel, it is now frozen in time as well as in space, a picture of a way of life that has passed, of pre-Thatcher Britain.
I also think, after the third reading, that it would not be unfair to compare Tinniswood to Charles Dickens. What Dickens did for 19th-century southern England, Tinniswood has done for 20th-century northern England. He has created larger-than-life characters that typify the place and period. There is Pat Brandon, who talks in advertising slogans, trying to be a yuppie. There is Uncle Mort, who in many respects is just the opposite. In the age of the youthful rebellion of the hippies, Uncle Mort was an elderly rebel, defying convention and social expectations expressed by his sister, Annie Brandon, Carter Brandon's mother.
So Peter Tinniswood portrays everyday life with a kind of Dickensian satire and dark humour. Some of the problems of the 1960s, which became obsessions in later decades, like racism, sexism, pollution and capitalist greed, are also present and treated with satirical humour, and occasional outbursts from the normally taciturn Carter Brandon, who otherside says little other than "Aye. Well. Mm."
Yes, the more I think about it, the more I think Peter Tinniswood deserves recognition as the 20th-century Dickens.
January 29, 2011
This was another booked loaned to me by my friend Andy, a Manchester native. It was like reading another language: still English but just barely. Thank god I've spent time in Lancaster and know a bit of the Lancashire vernacular. The book is a hoot. Full of humor that only the English can pull off. The story revolves around Uncle Mort and his impending death---only he keeps getting healthier as his time runs out. I can still see Andy's eyes as he handed me this book. He obviously had fond memories of reading this and now I do too.
January 7, 2014
The Brandon books are a comic, often surreal eulogy for a disappearing north and this continues where the first book left off. Great writing, with a darker edge to it.
May 2, 2019
The occasionally crude, frequently politically incorrect, and consistently hilarious tales of the eccentric Brandon family in England's 1970s industrial north. Laced with surreal asides, cynical views of progress, and a love for a simpler if grimy past, this is a wonderful romp. Having watched the TV series based on it and its predecessor ("A Touch of Daniel"*) many years ago, I was hearing the dialogue in the immortal tomes of Robin Bailey - the perfect Uncle Mort - et al.
*The two books stand on their own merits - it's not necessary to read Daniel before starting on this volume.
*The two books stand on their own merits - it's not necessary to read Daniel before starting on this volume.
October 12, 2019
This sequel to A Touch of Daniel, Peter Tinniswood's first book featuring the Brandon family, once again celebrates the glorious language and humour of the working-class north. Published in 1973, and set in the early sixties, the world it describes has largely disappeared but the cadences of speech and the dry humour are still going strong. There's not a great deal of plot and what there is is there primarily as a framework on which to hang the wonderful, warm but rough-edged comic writing for which Tinniswood was justly celebrated.
November 27, 2021
I grew up with Peter Tinniswood's books. It's only on re-reading them I realise how much I quote from them without always realising. Aye. Well. Mm.
Tinniswood goes places that few other authors dare to venture in creating his 60s Northern working class world. The grinding shabbiness of his characters and their relentless world are at odds with the inner life of the main character. And in this bleak version of reality, all dreams must be shattered.
It's not like anything else, but you need it in your life.
Tinniswood goes places that few other authors dare to venture in creating his 60s Northern working class world. The grinding shabbiness of his characters and their relentless world are at odds with the inner life of the main character. And in this bleak version of reality, all dreams must be shattered.
It's not like anything else, but you need it in your life.
June 26, 2019
Classic 70's northern humour. Uncle Mort is one of the best Northern character ever created.
Funny; sad; irreverent and above all - not a hint of the PC that has infected even our better writers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ-mY...
Funny; sad; irreverent and above all - not a hint of the PC that has infected even our better writers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ-mY...
March 1, 2024
Tinniswood at his peak although the sequel - Except You're A Bird - is equally as good if not better.
His cricketing books - Tales from a Long Room et al - are quite brilliantly surreal displaying a depth of imagination unsurpassed in modern literature.
His cricketing books - Tales from a Long Room et al - are quite brilliantly surreal displaying a depth of imagination unsurpassed in modern literature.
January 31, 2020
I can't tell you how much fun it was to read this book! Hilarious............
January 23, 2021
Loved it when I read it after the TV series aired, now find it too much of its time. Funny in places, yes, but the one line paragraphs jar.
December 8, 2021
The factory n the match at the end was gd funny
September 1, 2023
It was like stepping back in time.
Life was less complicated, and competitive back then. Northern England in the post-war/pre-Thatcher days, reminding me of my grandparents.
Life was less complicated, and competitive back then. Northern England in the post-war/pre-Thatcher days, reminding me of my grandparents.
September 27, 2014
The follow on from A Touch of Daniel. I started it but didn't finish having just read the A Touch of Daniel: a bit like eating butterscotch Angel Delight: I was feeling a bit sick and craving something more substantial and wholesome. See full review at: http://stevek1889.blogspot.co.uk/2014...
September 1, 2016
I doubt we will have another author quite like the late Peter Tinniswood, his unique gentle comedy a delight to read. I have all his books and re-read them every few years, they never fail to bring a smile to my face.
February 22, 2023
Want to read the whole lot again.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews