The Hired Man

"... a bracing, rugged and exhilarating adaptation of Bragg's novel ... splendidly original music ... a magnificent British achievement." - Time Out

"... hewing his (Goodall) musical line from Britain's choral traditions with an audacity that is at once thrilling and fearful..." - City Limits

"Howard Goodall's score is one of the finest I have heard in a British musical in years." - Guardian

"thoughtful and, on occasions most moving ... That rare thing: a folk opera of our immediate past." - Daily Mail

"Melvyn Bragg's qualities as a novelist-humanity, idealism and a complex and highly articulate man's understanding of those who are simple and inarticulate-shine out from this musical..." - Sunday Telegraph