The Cumbrian Trilogy comprises three novels by Melvyn Bragg

Melvyn Bragg

Melvyn Bragg, Baron Bragg FRSL FRTS FBA, FRS FRSA is an English broadcaster and author best known for his work with the BBC and for presenting the The South Bank Show...

, published between 1969 and 1980.

The story is set predominantly in Thurston (Bragg's name for Wigton

Wigton

Wigton is a small market town and civil parish outside the Lake District, in the administrative county of Cumbria in England, and traditionally in Cumberland. It is the bustling and thriving centre of the Solway Plain, situated between the Caldbeck Fells and the Solway coast...

), from the 1920s to the 1970s, and follows the lives of John Tallentire, his son Joseph, and his grandson Douglas. These three characters are central to the novels The Hired Man

The Hired Man

The Hired Man is a novel by Melvyn Bragg, first published in 1969. It is the first part of Bragg's Cumbrian Trilogy.The story is set predominantly in the rural area around Thurston , from the 1890s to the 1920s, and follows the life of John Tallentire, a farm labourer and coal miner...

, A Place in England

A Place in England

A Place in England is a novel by Melvyn Bragg, first published in 1970. It is the second part of Bragg's Cumbrian Trilogy.The story is set predominantly in Thurston , from the 1920s to the 1960s, and follows the life of Joseph Tallentire, a labourer, footman, and eventually publican...

, and Kingdom Come, respectively.

As the family saga unfolds, Bragg sets the constant family characteristics of the protagonists against the flow of historical change.

Tallentire family tree

Harry = (wife)
(son) = (wife)
Isaac
Seth = (wife)
Helen = George
Lester (illegitimate) = Emma (de facto)
Harry
Aileen = Harry (see below)
Thomas
John = Emily
Sarah
Alice
Harry (killed in WWI)
May
Joseph = Betty
Douglas = Mary
Anne (died young)
John
Harry (adopted) = Aileen (see above)
(daughter)
= Avril (John's 2nd wife)
Mary
Frank (killed in WWII)
Donald (killed in WWII)
Anne
Robert