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Pete Brown is a convivial guide on this journey through the intoxicating history of working men’s clubs.

From the movement’s founding by teetotal social reformer the Reverend Henry Solly to the booze-soaked mid-century heyday, when more than 7 million Brits were members, this warm-hearted and entertaining book reveals how and why the clubs became the cornerstone of Britain’s social life – offering much more than cheap Federation Bitter and chicken in a basket.

Often dismissed as relics of a bygone age, Pete reminds us that long before the days of Phoenix Nights, 3,000-seat venues routinely played host to stars like Shirley Bassey, Louis Armstrong and the Bee Gees, offering entertainment for all the family, and close to home at that. Britain’s best-known comedians made reputations through a thick miasma of smoke, from Slough to Skegness.

The book explores the clubs’ role in defining community and class identity for generations of men, and eventually women, in Britain’s industrial towns. They were, at their best, a vehicle for social mobility and self-improvement, run as cooperatives for working people by working people - an informal, community-owned pre-cursor to the welfare state.

In this episode, the Revd Henry Solly was a passionate supporter of working men's clubs and institutes, as a means to promote self improvement among working class men. His foundation of the CIU – the Club and Institute Union – was crucial to the cohesive future of the movement.

Written and Read by Pete Brown
Abridged by Isobel Creed and Jill Waters
Produced by Jill Waters

A Waters Company production for Â鶹Éç Radio 4