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To the Hermitage
To the Hermitage tells two stories. The first is of the narrator, a novelist, on a trip to Stockholm and Russia for an academic seminar called the Diderot Project. The second takes place two hundred years earlier and recreates the journey the French philosopher Denis Diderot made to Russia at the invitation of Catherine the Great, a woman whose influence could change the path of history . . . Malcolm Bradbury’s last novel is rich with his satirical wit, but it is also deeply personal and weaves a wonderfully wry self-portrait.
Cuts
It is the summer of 1986 and the cutting, trimming and shrinking of public funds is much in the news. Education, health, the arts - all are being deprived of money. But while the university where the obscure but critically sound writer Henry Babbacombe teaches is having to cut down on staff, a northern television company is having a last spree before the money runs out. And who should they choose for their writer but Henry Babbacombe? Wrenched from the privacy and seclusion of his garden shed into the spotlight of the media, Henry learns a thing or two about what it takes to be successful in Mrs Thatcher's Britain.
The Modern World
Examines ten modern writers whose works have reshaped our concept of literature.
Liar's Landscape
What is written lives far longer than we do -- or so we would like to think.' From unfinished novel to unsent letters, from prose to play, from Macclesfield to the New Year's Honours List, Liar's Landscape is evidence of the late great author's versatility, wit and passion for the written word. When Sir Malcolm Bradbury died in 2000, he left behind a lifetime's work; some of it published and some of it not; fiction and non-fiction; short stories and novels; completed work, work in progress, work barely begun; plans, sketches, notes, titles. Given shape and coherence by his son, Dominic, that work has now become Liar's Landscape, a book about books, about writing and writers, about being a writer and, of course, about being Malcolm Bradbury. 'Liar's Landscape is essential reading for all admirers of Malcolm Bradbury and, for those who don't know his work, an invaluable sampler of his worldly-wise humour and satirical wit' Tom Rosenthal, Independent
All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go
At the end of the 1950s, a debonair and well-dressed Malcolm Bradbury returned from a year in the United States, slightly shattered but not quite broken, to a Britain that had thoroughly changed. Commercial television had started, the bee-hive hairdo was in, and there were supermarkets instead of grocer's shops. In this piece of vintage Bradbury, the author of The History Man takes on Consumer Society and the British character as only he can. 'He restores belief in the power of laughter' Harpers & Queen 'A master not only of language and comedy but of feeling too' Sunday Times
The History Man
With an introduction by James Naughtie Take a Valium. Have a party. Go on a demo. Shoot a soldier. Make a bang. Bed a friend. That’s your problem-solving system . . . But haven’t we tried all that? Howard Kirk, product of the Swinging Sixties, radical university lecturer, and one half of a very modern marriage, is throwing a party. The night will have all sorts of repercussions: for Henry Beamish, Howard’s desperate and easily neglected friend, and for Howard’s wife Barbara, promiscuous ’70s liberal and exhausted victim of motherhood. The History Man is Malcolm Bradbury’s masterpiece, the definitive campus novel and one of the most influential novels of the 1970s. Funny, disconcerting and provocative, Bradbury brilliantly satirizes a world of academic power struggles as his anti-hero seduces his away around campus. But beneath the surface is an altogether more affecting portrait: it reveals a marriage in crisis and demonstrates the fragility of the human heart.
The History Man
The History Man tells the story of Barbara and Howard Kirk, their very modern marriage and their equally radical politics. Set in the fictional world of Watermouth University, Bradbury brilliantly captures the complexities of academic life, from tedious meetings and work-place machinations, to corruption and disruption at the highest levels. And as the unease and unhappiness behind the Kirk's relationship becomes apparent, so too does Bradbury's ability to dissect the human heart and character. His insightful, profound portrayal of a marriage in crisis is utterly convincing and compelling. 'Malcolm Bradbury has come up with a novel that simply must be read' ELIZABETH BERRIDGE, Daily Telegraph 'Extremely witty . . . Bradbury writes brilliantly' New York Times 'Very funny . . . a quite ruthless satire' Evening Standard
Eating People is Wrong
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.
Stepping Westward
Frustrated novelist James Walker is setting off for the heartland of America to reinvigorate himself after years spent living a drab life in a drab English city. The institution for which he is destined, Benedict Arnold University – ‘Take a BA at BA’ – is still in the grip of McCarthyism, but Walker soon discovers that certain members of BA’s academic staff insist that he throws himself right into the swing of things . . . Characterized by Bradbury’s trademark satirical wit, Stepping Westward expertly explores the push-pull relationship of ’60s modernism and ’50s reservation.
Rates of Exchange
Slaka! Land of lake and forest, of beetroot and tractor. Slaka! Land whose borders are sometimes here, often further north, and sometimes not at all! Dr Petworth is on a cultural exchange to the small (and fictional) Eastern European country of Slaka. Pallid and middle-aged, Dr Petworth might appear stuffy, but during his short stay he manages to embroil himself in the thorny thickets of sexual intrigue and love, while still finding time to see the major sites. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1983, Rates of Exchange took Bradbury’s satirical gifts to a new level.
