Shortlisted for the Theatre Book Prize; former prime minister John Major takes a remarkable journey into his own unconventional family past to tell the richly colourful story of the British music hall. Music hall was one of the glories of Victorian Engl&. Sentimental, vulgar, but patriotic & champion of the underdog, it held a mirror to the audiences` hopes, fears & the general absurdity of life. Vast, smoke-filled auditoriums were packed every night throughout Britain. Popular performers, such as Marie Lloyd & Vesta Tilley, were among the highest-paid & most celebrated figures in the l&. This was the world that John Major`s father Tom entered at the age of twenty-one as a comedian & singer. In ` My Old Man`, the former prime minister tells his father`s story as a springboard for an entertaining history of the music hall, from its origins in Elizabethan times through to its heyday in the nineteenth century & eventual decline with the rise of radio & cinema in the twentieth century. Packed with colourful anecdotes, this warm-hearted account captures a golden, bygone age of entertainment.