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A Touch of Daniel
The Brandon family inhabit an absurd world where the men say nothing if they can help it and the women carp endlessly to no avail. They live an exceptionally unexceptional life—to work at the same factory every day, same food on the table every evening, and a drink at the pub every night. Yet it soon becomes clear that in the Brandon household, things are increasingly out of kilter. Bizarre deaths become a regular occurrence; Mr. Brandon goes AWOL; roguish old Uncle Mort moves in; knitting-mad Aunt Lil gets pregnant; geriatric Uncle Stavely decamps from the old folks home to the attic; and poor Carter Brandon, the bearer of everyone’s burdens, is having women trouble, with one trying to drag him to the altar and a host of others trying more immediate tactics. Then, of course, there’s Daniel.
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First published January 1, 1968
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
March 16, 2017
Every now and then I hear a repeat of one of Peter Tinniswood's wonderful radio dramas on BBC Radio 4 Extra - most recently Uncle Mort's South Country. Last year I was lucky to catch a his dramatisation of his three novels about the Brandon family of which A Touch of Daniel is the first. To my mind he was one of the greatest writers for radio of the post-war period. A Touch of Daniel, first published in 1968 doesn't quite reach the heights that its dramatised version did, but is an entertaining read nonetheless; funny, acutely observed and increasingly surreal and with a range of brilliant comic characters. Tinniswood's observations of an 'ordinary' northern working class family and in particular the things they say are spot on. Most of the humour in the book comes from his acute ear for dialogue and his spot on characterisation. I've already tracked down the second and third books (long out of print, unfortunately) so I'll look forward to reading them too.
February 25, 2017
"I am right disappointed" said Carter Brandon to his uncle and aunt's baby Daniel
Why?
"I thought I was the hero of an angry young man novel. Having beer, watching rugby, sowing my wild oats before being tamed by the fiance and the mother-in-law. I thought I was going to be Arthur Seaton or Joe Lampton"
You can't always have real life Carter.
"Instead I get inserted into a novel with all sorts of odd things happening. Strange pregnancies, odd relatives, and a 24-year old man who talks to a baby with strange powers. It's bloody odd Daniel, I tell thee"
Oh grow up Carter, not everyone gets film adaptions with Laurence Harvey or Albert Finney. You'll just have to settle for a sitcom and get played by Stephen Rea and Keith Drinkel. But then what do I know, I am only a baby.
Carter placed Daniel back into the cot. As he left the nursery he caught sight of Uncle Stavely carrying the (literally) legless Corporal Parkinson down the stairs. He sighed.
"I heard that, pardon" said Uncle Stavely
It really is a cross between a late 1950s kitchen sink novel with magic realism. Oddly comforting and warm and funny but also callous and strange.
Why?
"I thought I was the hero of an angry young man novel. Having beer, watching rugby, sowing my wild oats before being tamed by the fiance and the mother-in-law. I thought I was going to be Arthur Seaton or Joe Lampton"
You can't always have real life Carter.
"Instead I get inserted into a novel with all sorts of odd things happening. Strange pregnancies, odd relatives, and a 24-year old man who talks to a baby with strange powers. It's bloody odd Daniel, I tell thee"
Oh grow up Carter, not everyone gets film adaptions with Laurence Harvey or Albert Finney. You'll just have to settle for a sitcom and get played by Stephen Rea and Keith Drinkel. But then what do I know, I am only a baby.
Carter placed Daniel back into the cot. As he left the nursery he caught sight of Uncle Stavely carrying the (literally) legless Corporal Parkinson down the stairs. He sighed.
"I heard that, pardon" said Uncle Stavely
It really is a cross between a late 1950s kitchen sink novel with magic realism. Oddly comforting and warm and funny but also callous and strange.
February 9, 2012
From BBC Radio 4 Extra:
As Carter Brandon struggles for love, the only person who understands is his baby cousin. Based on the first in Tinniswood's 'Brandon Family' series.
As Carter Brandon struggles for love, the only person who understands is his baby cousin. Based on the first in Tinniswood's 'Brandon Family' series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 6, 2017
I first read A touch of Daniel 45 years ago, quite soon after it was written, and only a few years after I had visited north-west England, where it is set. The story deals with the Brandon family, who live in a place that sounds like Oldham, Lancashire, where I once stayed with a college friend, Alan Cox. I had been reading other books set in the area, like Elidor, and so I found a kind of affinity and feel for the place.
A touch of Daniel above all gives a feel for the place and the people. It deals with the Brandon family, who take in various widowed relatives, and deals with how they all get on in a crowded house. It is both sad and funny, and the first time I read it, it struck me as amazingly realistic. If you wanted to get a feel for the culture of people in north-western England in the 1960s, this would be the book to read.
The first reading gave a feeling for the place and the people, but reading it again 45 years later it is also a remembrance of things past, a recalling of pre-Thatcher Britain.
I'm now re-reading the next book in the series, I didn't know you cared.
A touch of Daniel above all gives a feel for the place and the people. It deals with the Brandon family, who take in various widowed relatives, and deals with how they all get on in a crowded house. It is both sad and funny, and the first time I read it, it struck me as amazingly realistic. If you wanted to get a feel for the culture of people in north-western England in the 1960s, this would be the book to read.
The first reading gave a feeling for the place and the people, but reading it again 45 years later it is also a remembrance of things past, a recalling of pre-Thatcher Britain.
I'm now re-reading the next book in the series, I didn't know you cared.
December 13, 2013
Picked this up after watching the sitcom, I Didn't Know You Cared, based on the same characters, also written by Peter Tinniswood. The sitcom is an overlooked gem, a surreal cult classic which ran to four series. It took Amazon four months to locate the box set after I ordered it! The only reason I can see for it not being hailed as a great 70s sitcom on 'I love 1975' clip shows and the like is that it's so thoroughly northern, but that's actually a huge part of its charm. The book is darker, but the black humour and characters are the same, highly recommended, and I'm looking forward to reading the other Tinniswood books that I've managed to locate on eBay.
December 13, 2015
I have no idea how this book is so hard to find and rarely mentioned. It is ridiculous in the best sense of the word. The humour is so dark, so wicked, so hilarious. It is wonderfully horrible. I snorted audibly on each page. I want to send a copy to all of the people I know who have the same wicked sense of humour but copies of this book are so hard to find. Read it and forgive yourself for laughing at all the irreverant humour.
December 17, 2012
A mostly unknown classic by the brilliant Peter Tinniswood.
A very funny yet dark comedy novel but so much more you will not read a more original book.
The 1st of four novels featuring the Brandon family set in the 1960's in Northern England and also featuring my favourite character in literature Uncle Mort.
A very funny yet dark comedy novel but so much more you will not read a more original book.
The 1st of four novels featuring the Brandon family set in the 1960's in Northern England and also featuring my favourite character in literature Uncle Mort.
February 19, 2017
The late Peter Tinniswood's first novel about the Brandon family is nothing like the BBC sitcom 'I Didn't Know You Cared' which was somewhat loosely based on it (by Tinniswood himself). And I'm not surprised. Carter Brandon's internal conversations with the baby Daniel, and the strange powers the child seems to have, are very surreal and strangely disturbing. The BBC would never have understood it (and I'm not sure I do, either). This part of the story is very much at odds with the rest, a comic kitchen-sink family drama set in a thinly disguised Sheffield. Tinniswood had a wonderful ear for dialogue, and a nice line in descriptive prose, but I'm not sure the Daniel business works, or what it's supposed to mean. Very odd. Aye, well, m'm.
October 10, 2014
"Some good aspects but the best description I can give is that they are like butterscotch Angel Delight. On the first mouthful you think you quite like it, then after a few spoonfuls, you realise you actually don’t like it that much at all and find it rather unsubstantial. Ultimately it leaves you feeling a bit sick..."
Full review at: http://stevek1889.blogspot.co.uk/2014...
Full review at: http://stevek1889.blogspot.co.uk/2014...
November 27, 2021
Unless you're already a Tinniswood fan you will never have read anything quite like this. It's funny, it's weird, it's dark, it's disgusting. But no-one can turn a Northern phrase or see the poetry in the mundane quite like Peter Tinniswood.
November 25, 2013
This book changed my life. He is still our best ever writer for radio, look out for his work on R4.
I cried openly when PT died I don't mind telling you. I might go for a little weep now...
S
I cried openly when PT died I don't mind telling you. I might go for a little weep now...
S
July 4, 2019
Classic northern novel, not as finely tunes as its follow up and a rather weird ending.
March 29, 2025
I read A Touch of Daniel (1968) for my book group.
It's bizarre yet compelling, and increasingly beguiling. By the conclusion I was completely won over by A Touch of Daniel's surreal brand of social realism.
The Brandon family are a well drawn Northern English working class family, and the much put upon son Carter Brandon is the star of the show. Collectively they make an endearing and eccentric bunch.
The dry, deadpan humour is perfectly observed and there are plenty of witty lines of dialogue. It’s reminiscent of Craig Cash and Caroline Aherne with that same distinctive, understated, and matter of fact Northern sensibility.
Whilst primarily comedic the novel also provides a convincing social commentary on the realities of life in Northern England in the late 1960s.
The racial attitudes are of their time but, that aside, this novel really stands up and was an unexpected delight.
4/5
The Brandon family inhabit an absurd world where the men say nothing if they can help it and the women carp endlessly to no avail. They live an exceptionally unexceptional life—to work at the same factory every day, same food on the table every evening, and a drink at the pub every night. Yet it soon becomes clear that in the Brandon household, things are increasingly out of kilter. Bizarre deaths become a regular occurrence; Mr. Brandon goes AWOL; roguish old Uncle Mort moves in; knitting-mad Aunt Lil gets pregnant; geriatric Uncle Stavely decamps from the old folks home to the attic; and poor Carter Brandon, the bearer of everyone’s burdens, is having women trouble, with one trying to drag him to the altar and a host of others trying more immediate tactics. Then, of course, there’s Daniel.
It's bizarre yet compelling, and increasingly beguiling. By the conclusion I was completely won over by A Touch of Daniel's surreal brand of social realism.
The Brandon family are a well drawn Northern English working class family, and the much put upon son Carter Brandon is the star of the show. Collectively they make an endearing and eccentric bunch.
The dry, deadpan humour is perfectly observed and there are plenty of witty lines of dialogue. It’s reminiscent of Craig Cash and Caroline Aherne with that same distinctive, understated, and matter of fact Northern sensibility.
Whilst primarily comedic the novel also provides a convincing social commentary on the realities of life in Northern England in the late 1960s.
The racial attitudes are of their time but, that aside, this novel really stands up and was an unexpected delight.
4/5
The Brandon family inhabit an absurd world where the men say nothing if they can help it and the women carp endlessly to no avail. They live an exceptionally unexceptional life—to work at the same factory every day, same food on the table every evening, and a drink at the pub every night. Yet it soon becomes clear that in the Brandon household, things are increasingly out of kilter. Bizarre deaths become a regular occurrence; Mr. Brandon goes AWOL; roguish old Uncle Mort moves in; knitting-mad Aunt Lil gets pregnant; geriatric Uncle Stavely decamps from the old folks home to the attic; and poor Carter Brandon, the bearer of everyone’s burdens, is having women trouble, with one trying to drag him to the altar and a host of others trying more immediate tactics. Then, of course, there’s Daniel.
September 16, 2020
Another re read, as I read these as a teenager. It still ammused me immensely, mostly the gritty Northern wit and wisdom. When I first read these (there is a series) I remember the blokes at work taking them off me as I was screaming with laughter during their lunch break. It you're Northern you'll immediately appreciate the dry wit and sarcasm. One of the best thing is that each page contaings a two or three word heading picked from the prose on that page, these are so random as to be hilarious in their own right. It was later serialised on TV and lost it's edge as the main charcater in the books is the ghost/concience of a dead baby (Daniel) who advises the main protagonist Brandon. This was left out of the TV series which sort of made it far less dark. Brilliant stuff
February 24, 2022
3.5 stars! Given and recommended to me by my father-in-law.
What a crazy and funny little book! Genuinely went out and bought cheese, crackers and pickled onions after reading the first few chapters because wanted to have it for my supper like the Brandons! As I've settled into my reading life, I always say one half of my heart is for Irish literature and the other half is for books of gritty English kitchen-sink dramas - those set in the 1950s - 1970s Midlands/North, where I can hear the broad dialect with all it's endearments and insults. I think the genre is dubbed 'Angry Young Men' but I feel it always runs far deeper than that description depicts.
This book ticks all the boxes in terms of working-class humour and family life. Laughed out loud so many times and really warmed to certain characters - especially Pat, the central character's fiancée. It's good fun and there is so much silliness, but also lots of special moments where the writing hits another level - subtle flashes of very human and insightful scenes, reaffirming Tinniswood as an extremely observant and astute writer with an emotive view of life. I kind of just wish there had been more of that!
What a crazy and funny little book! Genuinely went out and bought cheese, crackers and pickled onions after reading the first few chapters because wanted to have it for my supper like the Brandons! As I've settled into my reading life, I always say one half of my heart is for Irish literature and the other half is for books of gritty English kitchen-sink dramas - those set in the 1950s - 1970s Midlands/North, where I can hear the broad dialect with all it's endearments and insults. I think the genre is dubbed 'Angry Young Men' but I feel it always runs far deeper than that description depicts.
This book ticks all the boxes in terms of working-class humour and family life. Laughed out loud so many times and really warmed to certain characters - especially Pat, the central character's fiancée. It's good fun and there is so much silliness, but also lots of special moments where the writing hits another level - subtle flashes of very human and insightful scenes, reaffirming Tinniswood as an extremely observant and astute writer with an emotive view of life. I kind of just wish there had been more of that!
November 9, 2022
A deadpan, surreal classic from the master of Northern (English) wit, Peter Tinniswood. The book's moments of casual offensiveness are very much of its era, but its irreverent, dry-as-dust gallows humour is timeless. A glorious slice of life. And death. Lots of death.
4 1/2 stars.
4 1/2 stars.
February 10, 2022
Quite amusing these Northerners aren't they!
January 19, 2026
Brilliant, a working class Evelyn Waugh with great descriptive powers and a nasty sense of black humour.
Pity 'The League of Gentlemen' haven't picked it up and made it more widely known and appreciated (the old TV sitcom wasn't particularly good and probably won't have aged well nor stand a chance of ever being shown again. Watched episode one on YouTube, it dragged and the casting of Carter and Pat was very poor.).
Every page would require a trigger warning in 2026, it's really that good.
Pity 'The League of Gentlemen' haven't picked it up and made it more widely known and appreciated (the old TV sitcom wasn't particularly good and probably won't have aged well nor stand a chance of ever being shown again. Watched episode one on YouTube, it dragged and the casting of Carter and Pat was very poor.).
Every page would require a trigger warning in 2026, it's really that good.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 6, 2014
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 22, 2023
Leaves you wanting more and more...
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews