{"title":"Beryl Bainbridge","description":"\u003cp\u003eBeryl Bainbridge's novels blend sharp wit with a haunting exploration of human nature, often weaving darkly comic tales set against everyday backdrops. Readers can expect richly drawn characters navigating complex emotions, where humor and tragedy intertwine seamlessly.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHer stories, like \u003cem\u003eAn Awfully Big Adventure\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe Bottle Factory Outing\u003c\/em\u003e, offer a compelling mix of tension and subtle irony, inviting reflection on the nuances of relationships and the unpredictability of life’s twists.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"an-awfully-big-adventure-by-beryl-bainbridge-9781917092500","title":"An Awfully Big Adventure","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLiverpool, 1950. Sixteen-year-old Stella is hired as assistant stage manager by a repertory theatre company and soon falls into a heady infatuation with the director, Meredith — failing to notice how he shows not only no interest in her, but in any woman. When the celebrated actor O'Hara arrives to take the lead in their production of \u003ci\u003ePeter Pan\u003c\/i\u003e, it sets in motion a drama offstage of lost innocence, tragedy, and miscommunication.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003ePeopled by a cast of eccentric characters and the air thick with the scent of greasepaint and cigarettes, \u003ci\u003eAn Awfully Big Adventure\u003c\/i\u003e is an evocative and sharp-edged novel for fans of Penelope Fitzgerald, Muriel Spark, and Camilla Grudova.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47494955466988,"sku":"9781917092500","price":27.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781917092500-an-awfully-big-adventure.jpg?v=1775793485"},{"product_id":"the-bottle-factory-outing-by-beryl-bainbridge-9781917092371","title":"The Bottle Factory Outing","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFreda and Brenda divide the bed they share with a barricade of books, then spend their days working side by side in a wine-bottling factory. A picnic out at Windsor Park for the two women and their colleagues offers promise for Freda and terror for Brenda. Passions run high before coming to a brutal and startling end.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith an unforgettably dark heart, \u003ci\u003eThe Bottle Factory Outing\u003c\/i\u003e is laugh-out-loud funny, grubbily evocative and slyly weird, and is for fans of Muriel Spark, Anita Brookner and early Ian McEwan.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47496556839148,"sku":"9781917092371","price":27.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781917092371-the-bottle-factory-outing.jpg?v=1775798885"},{"product_id":"an-awfully-big-adventure-by-beryl-bainbridge-9781961341920","title":"An Awfully Big Adventure","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA blackly comic story of the secrets, sex, and violence behind the curtain of a repertory theatre's postwar production of \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003ePeter Pan\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e: its 'close observation and hilarity are underlain by a sense of tragedy as deep as any in fiction.' \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e(The Times)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eLiverpool, 1950. Against the grimy backdrop of the grey postwar city, a shabby, scandal-steeped repertory theatre company rehearses for their Christmas performance of \u003cem\u003ePeter Pan\u003c\/em\u003e. Treading the boards for the first time is sixteen-year-old Stella Bradshaw, ambitious, idealistic, and still overwhelmingly innocent. She falls hard for the rakish, monocled director, Meredith Potter, but, unable to attract his attentions and not understanding why he's spending quite so much time with their male colleagues, she turns to another colleague to initiate her into the ways of love. Enter the celebrated P. L. O'Hara, a dashing leading man who's nursing secrets of his own. When the curtain is up, fantastical entertainment abounds, but backstage a very different drama is playing out: a pitch-black comedy of indiscretion, intrigue, and eventual tragedy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eShortlisted for the Booker Prize, and dusted with that magical 'air of Pinteresque menace and Sparkian malice [that] lingers around the margins of [all of Beryl Bainbridge's] fiction,' (Michiko Kakutani, \u003cem\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/em\u003e), \u003cem\u003eAn Awfully Big Adventure\u003c\/em\u003e is one of the author's very best and best-loved novels.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47932120924396,"sku":"9781961341920","price":50.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781961341920-an-awfully-big-adventure.jpg?v=1783851038"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.live\/collections\/beryl-bainbridge.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}