Wigton
The sorrows of the young Melvyn Bragg
His first impression of Oxford University in 1958 was of ‘effortless wealth and privilege everywhere’ and, feeling like a foreigner, he pined for the familiarity of close-knit Wigton
Rory Stewart’s romantic view of Cumbria is wide of the mark
The former MP for Penrith and the Border prefers to ignore the depleted uplands and poisoned lakes as he rhapsodises about the landscape’s ‘improbable beauty’







