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(c)1948. "Elizabeth Bowen’s 1948 novel perfectly captures the atmosphere of London during the blitz while providing brilliant insights into the huma...Show more
(c)1948. "Elizabeth Bowen’s 1948 novel perfectly captures the atmosphere of London during the blitz while providing brilliant insights into the human heart."
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/12/100-best-novels-elizabeth-bowen-heat-of-the-day-blitz
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(c)1949.
“William Sansom was once described as London’s closest equivalent to Franz Kafka. He wrote in hallucinatory detail, bringing every image into pi...Show more
(c)1949.
“William Sansom was once described as London’s closest equivalent to Franz Kafka. He wrote in hallucinatory detail, bringing every image into pin-sharp focus. It was his strength and weakness; it made his stories hauntingly memorable, but his technique often left his characters feeling under-developed.” https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/forgotten-authors-no-8-william-sansom-949090.html
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1775727.The_Body?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=TvHl3pdMk3&rank=1
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(c)1950. "William Cooper's Scenes from Provincial Life was first published in 1950, when Joe Lunn was one of the first breed of ordinary male anti-h...Show more
(c)1950. "William Cooper's Scenes from Provincial Life was first published in 1950, when Joe Lunn was one of the first breed of ordinary male anti-hero protagonists to appear in English fiction. Joe's exploits and ordinariness, as he tries to avoid his mistress Myrtle's attempts to trap him into marriage, brilliantly poke fun at what were, and often remain, the taboo subjects of sex and class. Published at the beginning of the decade, William Cooper's novel ushered in books like Lucky Jim and Room at the Top in the 1950s." https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/337/3371/scenes-from-provincial-life/9780141046884.html
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1775730.Scenes_from_Provincial_Life_including_Scenes_from_Married_Life?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=a3sQp5RtUc&rank=3
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(c)1950. "Taylor's marvelous, dark novel of 1949 is reissued with a new introduction..... The psychological damage wrought by the recent war subtly a...Show more
(c)1950. "Taylor's marvelous, dark novel of 1949 is reissued with a new introduction..... The psychological damage wrought by the recent war subtly and convincingly underpins this account of three variously unhappy women and three ill-assorted men who may or may not offer them the hope of happiness... The writing is so perfectly pitched that one almost resents becoming aware of the novel's elegant structure unfolding itself towards completion."
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1178157.A_Wreath_of_Roses?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=z8wvbBN50s&rank=1
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Book - 1951
Paperback - 1978
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(c)1953. "Summering with a fellow schoolboy on a great English estate, Leo, the hero of L. P. Hartley’s finest novel, encounters a world of unimagin...Show more
(c)1953. "Summering with a fellow schoolboy on a great English estate, Leo, the hero of L. P. Hartley’s finest novel, encounters a world of unimagined luxury. But when his friend’s beautiful older sister enlists him as the unwitting messenger in her illicit love affair, the aftershocks will be felt for years. The inspiration for the brilliant Joseph Losey/Harold Pinter film starring Julie Christie and Alan Bates, The Go-Between is a masterpiece—a richly layered, spellbinding story about past and present, naïveté and knowledge, and the mysteries of the human heart." https://www.nyrb.com/products/the-go-between
https://www.goodreads.com/book/photo/258079.The_Go_Between
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(c)1953. "John Wain’s first novel...has been called the first appearance of the Angry Young Man as hero. Charles Lumley has finished University, wh...Show more
(c)1953. "John Wain’s first novel...has been called the first appearance of the Angry Young Man as hero. Charles Lumley has finished University, which has left him totally unsuited for any job he would want to take, and he has split from the woman he has been in love with since they were at school. He takes on any number of jobs as his whims and circumstances dictate : window cleaner, comedy scriptwriter, delivery driver, hospital porter. Through a picaresque chain of accidents he comes to terms with his own feelings and the girl that he has set his heart on, even though she seems to be out of his reach as he rejects both the money-world and the life of a working man…"
http://johnwain.com/wordpress/?page_id=25
https://www.goodreads.com/book/photo/1543231.Hurry_on_Down
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Paperback - 2012
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in some locations
All copies in use
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Paperback - 1982
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in some locations
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(c)1956. "One of England’s first openly gay novelists, Angus Wilson was a dirty realist who relished the sleaze and scuffle of daily life. Slashingly...Show more
(c)1956. "One of England’s first openly gay novelists, Angus Wilson was a dirty realist who relished the sleaze and scuffle of daily life. Slashingly satirical, virtuosically plotted, and displaying Dickensian humor and nerve, Anglo-Saxon Attitudes features a vivid cast of characters that includes scheming academics and fading actresses, big businessmen toggling between mistresses and wives, media celebrities, hustlers, transvestites, blackmailers, toadies, and even one holy fool. Everyone, it seems, is either in cahoots or in the dark, even as comically intrepid Gerald Middleton struggles to maintain some dignity while digging up a history of lies."
https://www.nyrb.com/products/anglo-saxon-attitudes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Saxon_Attitudes
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(c)1957. "Braine’s first and most successful novel of working-class ‘angst’ and the struggle of ‘angry young man’ Joe Lampton. Anxious to climb the...Show more
(c)1957. "Braine’s first and most successful novel of working-class ‘angst’ and the struggle of ‘angry young man’ Joe Lampton. Anxious to climb the social ladder by whatever means possible in post-war Britain, he is determined to make something of himself, targeting a high-paid job. He notices a young man with an expensive car and a pretty girlfriend and realises that this lifestyle and appearance is what he aspires to. The book centres on Joe’s efforts to secure a future he can take pride in, but disaster and remorse are never far away either."
https://canongate.co.uk/books/1439-room-at-the-top/
This 20th century classic has also been filmed and made into a TV series.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_at_the_Top_(novel)
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Paperback - 1992
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in some locations
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(c)1959. Classic London novel that inspired the 1986 film and also the Paul Weller Jam song.
"The question of race in London had become a defining...Show more
(c)1959. Classic London novel that inspired the 1986 film and also the Paul Weller Jam song.
"The question of race in London had become a defining issue for Colin MacInnes by the mid-1950s. The position of black newcomers in London encapsulated for him the problem of the outsider, the marginal, the misunderstood." (https://www.londonfictions.com/colin-macinnes-absolute-beginners.html)
"At face value it is a vivid sketch of a particular place at a particular time (the unfashionable post-war sprawl of west London that MacInnes calls ‘London Napoli’ roughly centred on Notting Hill, and within a diamond bordered by Kensington High Street, Bayswater, Ladbroke Grove, and Holland Park). 35 years after the death of its author, the book is still in print which suggests it has some enduring qualities..." https://thelondonreadingclub.wordpress.com/2012/03/04/absolute-beginners/
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fc/Colin_MacInnes_-_Absolute_Beginners.jpeg
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(c)1959. "Forty-year-old university professor Stuart Treece is rather set in his ways, and in the midst of the changing attitudes of the ’50s, his e...Show more
(c)1959. "Forty-year-old university professor Stuart Treece is rather set in his ways, and in the midst of the changing attitudes of the ’50s, his encounters with the younger generation are making him feel decidedly alien. When he falls disastrously in love with one of his students all his efforts to acclimatize are hilariously undermined. Timeless and brilliant, Eating People is Wrong is Malcolm Bradbury’s first novel, and established him as a master of satire." https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/malcolm-bradbury/eating-people-is-wrong/9781447222798
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/583643.Eating_People_is_Wrong
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(c)1959. "Waterhouse's neurotic, northern boy-outsider, attempting to cope with his crushingly conformist surroundings by escaping into Ambrosia, a...Show more
(c)1959. "Waterhouse's neurotic, northern boy-outsider, attempting to cope with his crushingly conformist surroundings by escaping into Ambrosia, a fantasy world where his daring exploits invariably earned him the admiration so sadly lacking in his home town of Stradhoughton, caught the tempo of the times and the place in which it was set. ... Billy Liar has not grown old. The world described by Keith Waterhouse may have changed, but his hero is an archetype we can all recognise." https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/aug/11/50-years-on-billy-liar
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/578644.Billy_Liar?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=cJkSLvEHhm&rank=1
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(c)1960. "Lynne Reid Banks' compassionate first novel examines the stigma of unmarried motherhood in pre-pill, pre-Abortion Act Britain... While the...Show more
(c)1960. "Lynne Reid Banks' compassionate first novel examines the stigma of unmarried motherhood in pre-pill, pre-Abortion Act Britain... While the social climate has changed drastically since publication, a transgressive frisson still crackles from the pages'
- The Guardian.
Pregnant by accident, kicked out of home by her father, 27-year-old Jane Graham goes to ground in the sort of place she feels she deserves - a bug-ridden boarding-house attic in Fulham. She thinks she wants to hide from the world, but finds out that even at the bottom of the heap, friends and love can still be found, and self-respect is still worth fighting for. https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1035817/the-l-shaped-room/9780099469636.html
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/960246.The_L_Shaped_Room?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=WJH1FwK3MI&rank=1
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(c)1960. "Vic Brown is attracted to the beautiful but demanding Ingrid. As their relationship grows and changes he comes to terms -- the hard way --...Show more
(c)1960. "Vic Brown is attracted to the beautiful but demanding Ingrid. As their relationship grows and changes he comes to terms -- the hard way -- with adult life and what it really means to love. The original Lad-Lit novel -- Stan Barstow laid the ground for Nick Hornby and Tony Parsons. First published in 1960." https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/A-Kind-of-Loving-by-Stan-Barstow/9781906998356
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2727751-a-kind-of-loving
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(c)1960-1965. "The Balkan Trilogy is the story of a marriage and of a war, a vast, teeming, and complex masterpiece in which Olivia Manning brings th...Show more
(c)1960-1965. "The Balkan Trilogy is the story of a marriage and of a war, a vast, teeming, and complex masterpiece in which Olivia Manning brings the uncertainty and adventure of civilian existence under political and military siege to vibrant life. Manning’s focus is not the battlefield but the café and kitchen, the bedroom and street, the fabric of the everyday world that has been irrevocably changed by war, yet remains unchanged." https://www.nyrb.com/products/the-fortunes-of-war-the-balkan-trilogy
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/465697.The_Balkan_Trilogy
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DVD - 2008
Available
in some locations
Paperback - 2009
Available
in some locations
Paperback - 1986
Available
in some locations