Lord Bragg has been a pivotal figure in the artistic, intellectual and cultural life of this country for more than 40 years. He is probably best-known as a broadcaster, notably for his South Bank Show on ITV and for In Our Time on BBC Radio 4 and is also a prolific author, having written 20 novels and a dozen major works of non-fiction.

His prestigious literary awards include the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, the Silver Pen Award and the WH Smith Literary Award and his novels have twice been long-listed for the Man Booker Prize.

His archive includes works never before seen by the public; including the handwritten manuscript of his unpublished first novel, numerous scripts for film and stage which never fully came to fruition, and other substantial projects virtually completed but set aside for artistic or practical reasons.

The collection is housed in 60 large boxes and encompasses manuscripts, typescripts and notes relating to all Bragg's published fiction and non-fiction, and also for various plays, screenplays, articles and lectures. The notes give a unique insight into the evolution of all these works, often documenting the entire creative process from an original idea through to publication or performance.

Cumbria-born Bragg wanted the archive to be permanently accessible in a location in the north of England. His decision to present the archive to the University reflects his ties to Leeds, which is recognised as a world-leading centre of excellence in English literature, and its library and Special Collections, where Bragg archive will be kept.

Lord Bragg said: "I am delighted to give my archive to the University of Leeds.
It is a great university with which I have a close association and its Brotherton Library is outstanding."

The original manuscripts and archives of recent and living writers are highly prized, providing unique raw material for academic research and teaching while fascinating and inspiring much wider audiences.

Leeds University Library contains many unique archives and manuscripts by distinguished writers, including Evelyn Waugh, Oscar Wilde and leading contemporary English poets like Geoffrey Hill and Tony Harrison.

Professor Michael Arthur, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds, said: "Melvyn Bragg is a great friend and supporter of the University and we are immensely proud to have him as our Chancellor. I know other research libraries here and in the USA wanted his archive, so Leeds is doubly fortunate to have these works."

Lord Bragg of Wigton holds fellowships and honorary degrees from 15 UK universities. He is President of the National Campaign for the Arts and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature He is also President of Mind, the mental health charity, and has been an active Labour life peer since 1998.

He has primarily regarded himself as an author throughout this highly demanding public career. He deliberately chose to work in the broadcast media after graduating from Oxford in the early 1960s with the intention of securing the kind of "day-job" that would allow him the freedom to write independently.

His 20 novels includes the celebrated Cumbrian Trilogy (1969-80) and the Soldier's Return quartet (1999 -2008). Much of his finest work draws on his family's and his own personal history, but, mediated by the imagination, the results are fiction, not autobiography. He has also written extensively for the theatre, television and film, and produced numerous works of non-fiction, ranging from biographies of Laurence Olivier and Richard Burton to meticulously-researched studies of the English language.

Chris Sheppard, Head of the University's Special Collections, said: "Melvyn Bragg has never self-consciously created a personal archive, but, so far as possible over five very busy decades, he has tried to keep everything relating to his writing.

"Our wonderful archives of Geoffrey Hill, Tony Harrison and now Melvyn Bragg could hardly relate to more different writers, but they have the shared experience of emerging from their very modest, though supportive, provincial family origins by grasping the educational opportunities afforded to them in their early years. Their achievements are in part a testimony to the transformative power of education when made accessible to all in post-war Britain." 

For more information contact:

Guy Dixon in the University of Leeds press office on 0113 343 4031 or email g.dixon@leeds.ac.uk.

 

Or, Chris Sheppard, Head of Special Collections at the University of Leeds, tel:  0113 343 5518.

 

Notes to editors

The 2008 Research Assessment Exercise showed the University of Leeds to be the UK's eighth biggest research powerhouse. The University is one of the largest higher education institutions in the UK and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. The University's vision is to secure a place among the world's top 50 by 2015.

The University's library is one of the top six academic libraries in the UK and has some of the country's outstanding collections of rare books and manuscripts. Nearly 200,000 books and hundreds of thousands of manuscripts are held in the Special Collections, five of which have been designated pre-eminent collections of national and international importance by the Museums Libraries and Archives Council.

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