John Braine(1922-1986)

In early 1957 he was earning £12 a week in a Bradford public library but in June that year he was able to give up his job because he was making a small fortune from the sales of a book mostly written while he was in Grassington sanatorium recovering from TB. By 1960 Room at the Top had sold half a million copies. In October 1985 he published his 13th book 'These Golden Days' and commenced a Saturday column 'Share My Life' for the Yorkshire Post which continued until he died in the Autumn of 1986