The Bottle Factory Outing (50th Anniversary Edition)

(Paperback)

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Description

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize and named 'one of the greatest novels of all time' by the Observer, this riveting novel shows Beryl Bainbridge at her darkly comic best

Freda and Brenda are friends spending their days in an Italian-run wine-bottling factory in North London. When a works outing materialises it offers promise for Freda, but terror for Brenda. Unexpected passions run high on the chilly day of liberty and their lives are never the same again. Beryl Bainbridge dazzles readers in this offbeat, haunting yet hilarious novel.

'An outrageously funny and horrifying novel' Graham Greene

'Superb... taut in construction, expansive in characterisation, vibrant in atmosphere and profoundly comic' The Times

'The masterful restraint of Beryl Bainbridge's sentences reveals an author in complete control of her artistry' Guardian

'Two very complex, funny female characters. They need each other although they would never admit it' Maxine Peake

Reviews

This is a superb novel. It is taut in construction, expansive in characterization, vibrant in atmosphere and profoundly comic * The Times *
The masterful restraint of Beryl Bainbridge's sentences reveals an author in complete control of her artistry, while the book itself displays unexpected political aptness...It is, in short, superb prose. There are perhaps few sentences that stand out as individual gems. But there are also few writers who offer more control and delight line-by-line * Guardian *
After turning the final page of The Bottle Factory Outing, one can only gasp, and grope for the right word...Such an atmosphere of impending doom has not been created since Brighton Rock - except that Beryl Bainbridge is mercilessly comic instead of being mercilessly vicious. Specialising in successive denouements, and with her gift for collecting the most amazing detail, she is so in control of her marvellous little story that one hangs on her words from first to last. What originality, what pleasure * Sunday Times *
Two very complex, funny female characters... They need each other although they would never admit it * Maxine Peake *
An outrageously funny and horrifying novel * Graham Greene *
How well Bainbridge uses both recognizable and even common circumstances and, this time, outright humor as shock absorbers... She's a considerable writer - sharp and knowing * Kirkus *
Bainbridge's barbed wit is underpinned by poignant failed dreams... This is a winner by any measure * Daily Mail *

Author Bio

Beryl Bainbridge (1932-2010) wrote eighteen novels, two travel books and five plays for stage and television. Five of her novels were shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Every Man for Himself and Injury Time won the Whitbread Prize, The Bottle Factory Outing won the Guardian Fiction Prize and Master Georgie won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Four of her novels including An Awfully Big Adventure were adapted for film. In 2011, Bainbridge was honoured posthumously with a special Best of Beryl Man Booker Prize in recognition of her outstanding career. Her final novel, The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress, was published in 2011.