Melvyn Bragg begins
Remember Me where his previous novel,
Crossing the Lines, leaves off. Joe Richardson, telling the story from the present, is a student at Oxford when he meets a French art student named Natasha. They fall in love and happily start building a life together. After Oxford, he begins his career with the BBC and they have a daughter. What love they had shared begins to fade and they begin to pull apart. They both struggle with depression and see individual psychotherapists, but when Joe leaves her for a younger woman, Natasha commits suicide. The storyline in
Remember Me follows close parallels in Melvyn Bragg's own life.
Remember Me has received positive reviews with The Independent saying, "It shouldn't matter one tiny bit where a novelist's inspiration comes from. Yet, the 'truth', about love - sexual, spousal, familial, paternal, even maternal - that Bragg endeavours to dissect masterfully in this case, is just too painfully true. He's either a far, far better artist than he's ever been recognised for being, or he still feels hopelessly, tragically guilty. Maybe it's a bit of both."
