Soundings S.

3 primary works

The Bottle Factory Outing

by Beryl Bainbridge

Published 24 October 1974

Short-listed for the Booker Prize and named 'one of the greatest novels of all time' by The Observer, this riveting novel which was recently adapted on BBC Radio 4 shows Beryl Bainbridge at her darkly comic best.

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

Inspired by author Beryl Bainbridge's own experiences working at a London wine-factory in the 1970s, The Bottle Factory Outing examines issues of friendship and consent, making the novel timelier than ever. Readers will be dazzled by this offbeat, haunting yet hilarious Guardian fiction prize-winning novel.

'An outrageously funny and horrifying story' Graham Greene (Observer)

The Birthday Boys

by Beryl Bainbridge

Published 5 December 1991

In this stunning new novel, award-winning author Beryl Bainbridge offers a brilliantly fictionalized account of the doomed Antarctic expedition led by Captain Scott in 1912. At once hair-raising and beautiful, here is an astonishing tale of misguided courage and human endurance. The Birthday Boys of the title are Scott and four members of his team, each of whom narrates a section of the book. As the story progresses the reader discovers that these men may not be reliable reporters. Their cocky optimism is both ghastly and dangerous. Brought up to despise professional expertise, their enterprise is lunatic, amateur and gentlemanly. Beryl Bainbridge makes it hauntingly clear: the men are fatally doomed in their bravery, the very stuff of heroes. Captain Scott's poignant trek becomes, in this remarkable novel, an historical event which prefigures the terrible new world dawning in Europe. It was an inept rehearsal for the carnage of the first world war, the ultimate challenge for the arrogant generals who shared Scott's skewed notion of courage that led men qualmlessly into harm's way. Subtle, poetic and unforgettable, The Birthday Boys is impossible to read without experiencing that magical shiver up the spine which is caused when great writing touches the soul.

Young Adolf

by Beryl Bainbridge

Published 18 October 1979

In this hilarious and ingenious novel set in 1912, Young Adolf Hitler, age twenty-three, comes to Liverpool, penniless, traveling with false papers, and perpetually stalked by imaginary enemies. His half-brother, Alois, who works as a hotel waiter and a salesman, has convinced him to assist in building a commercial empire based on the newly invented safety razor. Adolf moves in with Alois, his Irish wife, and their infant son and promptly inconveniences them: He is difficult, depressed, lies for days on the sofa, bungles the simplest jobs, and has not yet found himself. In episodes of disarming comedy, at every turn young Adolf becomes involved in ludicrous and embarrassing situations, so much so that he would never, for the rest of his life, mention his laughably awkward visit to England. Taking on one of history's odder incidents with her considerable imagination and wicked sense of humor, Beryl Bainbridge makes Adolf Hitler as absurd a figure in words as Charlie Chaplin made him on film.