Melissa Blackburn – författare

Hope and Glory and the television series it accompanies provide a unique record of the strong links between the West of England and the Empire and Commonwealth in the twentieth century. It features the epic stories of men and women whose lives were shaped by emigration and immigration on an unimaginable scale. We hear the voices of those who were inspired to undertake a life-changing journey across the sea to England, to Australia, to India, Africa and the Far East.What was it like to grow up in India at the height of British Empire? What happened to the thousands of orphans forcibly transported to places like Australia and Canada? How did it feel to struggle for civil rights in 1960s Bristol? What was it like to be an eighteen-year-old National Serviceman fighting a war in the jungles of Malaya? Hope and Glory is a fascinating and often moving snapshot of a bygone era whose legacy lives on today.