Beryl Bainbridge Books

Edward is throwing a dinner party with Binny, his mistress. Aware that she has long been denied those small intimacies that his wife takes for granted - choosing a birthday present for his sister, for example, or sorting his socks - he wants to give her a chance to feel more involved in his life, to socialise with some of his friends (the discreet ones). Things are a little awkward to begin with - a late start and him having to be away by half past ten - but everything seems to be going well. But then some uninvited, and rather forceful guests arrive, and it doesn't look like Edward is going to make it home on time.

Beryl Bainbridge's Booker-shortlisted novel, reissued as one of five titles celebrating Abacus's 50th anniversary, with a new introduction by Amanda Craig

A brilliantly realized evocation of the thoughts and voices of Captain Scott and the four men with him, who suffered extraordinary hardships before finally dying during their 1912 attempt to be the first to reach the South Pole. 'A whole lost era of fantastic courage, determination, idealism, curiosity, boyish foolishness and class mores is brought brilliantly and touchingly back by Bainbridge's penetrating psychological acumen and her superb scene and action painting...A masterly achievement, not to be missed by anyone who cherishes a strong, meaningful story beautifully told' Publishers Weekly The Birthday Boys is one of Beryl Bainbridge's most acclaimed novels, telling the story of Scott's doomed expedition through the voices of five men on the voyage. As Scott, Petty Officer Taff Evans, ship's doctor Dr Edward Wilson, Lieutenant Henry Bowers and Captain Lawrence Oates step forward for their place in the narrative, the reader is gripped by the the characters themselves alongside the vividly evoked period.

Beryl Bainbridge's classic early novel weaves a dark, clever tale of a young woman in thrall to a golden stranger in 1960s London.

Beryl Bainbridge's classic early novel of English domestic life after the War, A Quiet Life is laced with irony and wicked black humour, and was praised by Hilary Mantel as 'one of the funniest books I have ever read'.

This provocative and compelling novel by one of Britian's leading writers tells the darkly humorous tale of Stella, a star-struck, teenaged actress caught in the backstage intrigue of a 1950s Liverpool theater repertory company. Stella romances the director of a production of Peter Pan with consequences that would be uproariously funny if they were not so dire. The play becomes a metaphor for the darker side of youth as Stella is drawn into very adult mayhem.

In 1854, when the battle of Inkerman in the Crimea was over, five survivors were hurriedly assembled in front of the camera. A sixth figure added symmetry to the group - Master Georgie. In the distance a young woman circled round and round like a bird above a robbed nest

'Brilliant ... do not miss this novel' DAILY TELEGRAPH * *'A moving, microcosmic portrait of an era's bitter end' THE TIMES

In the 1770s and 1780s Dr Johnson, having completed his life's work, is running an increasingly chaotic life. Torn between his strict morality and his undeclared passion for the widow of an old friend, he is revealed here in all his wit and glory.

A black comedy about Hitler's time in Liverpool* 'Vintage bittersweet Bainbridge' - MAIL ON SUNDAY schovat popis

Freda and Brenda spend their days working in an Italian-run wine- bottling factory. A work outing offers promise for Freda, and terror for Brenda, passions run high on that chilly day of freedom, and life after the outing never returns to normal.

In the rainswept summer of 1968, Rose sets off for the United States from Kentish Town to meet a man she knows as Washington Harold, in her suitcase a polka-dot dress and a one-way ticket. In a country rocked by the assassination of Martin Luther King and a rising groundswell of violence, they are to join forces in search of the charismatic and elusive Dr Wheeler - oracle, guru and redeemer - whom Rose credits with rescuing her from a terrible childhood, and against whom Harold nurses a silent grudge. As they trail their quarry, zigzagging through America in a camper van, the odd couple - Rose, damaged child of grey postwar Britain, and nervous, obsessive, driven Harold - encounter a ragged counter-cultural army of Wheeler's acolytes, eddying among dangerous currents of obscure dissent and rage. But somewhere in the wide American darkness, Dr Wheeler is waiting.

Po stopách skutečného zločinu. Kriminální příběh z viktoriánské Anglie od renomované britské autorky, která se inspirovala skutečnou událostí, tzv. Stockwellskou tragédií, kdy ctihodný anglikánský kněz, učenec a pedagog, reverend J. S. Watson umlátil k smrti svou ženu. Dva dny její tělo schovával v pokoji a pak se pokusil o sebevraždu. Podivné okolnosti této události zůstávaly zahaleny tajemstvím. S představivostí novelistky vyplnila autorka prázdná místa kriminálního příběhu, aby vykreslila drsný portrét nešťastného manželství.

Kniha obsahuje dva romány – Podnikový výlet (1974) a Krajčírka (1973). Mierumilovné postavy sa zrazu ocitajú v nezvyčajných situáciach a hľadajúc únik pred trestom za zlo, ktoré nechtiac spôsobili, volia absurdnú, no jedinú možnosť záchrany.

Dvě novely (Podnikový výlet, 1974; V prodlouženém čase, 1977) současné britské autorky jsou groteskně ironické výpovědi o zápase obyčejného člověka s krutou realitou jeho života. Hrdinkami obou příběhů jsou ženy, které v očekávání životní změny směrem k lepšímu, se stávají obětí tragické nehody či násilí. Doslov napsal Martin Hilský.