Short-listed for the Booker Prize and named 'one of the greatest novels of all time' by The Observer, this riveting novel 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
Review
This is a superb novel. It is taut in construction, expansive in characterization, vibrant in atmosphere and profoundly comic - The Times
The masterful restraint of Beryl Bainbridge's sentences reveals an author in complete control of her artistry, while the book itself displays unexpected political aptness...It is, in short, superb prose. There are perhaps few sentences that stand out as individual gems. But there are also few writers who offer more control and delight line-by-line - Guardian
After turning the final page of The Bottle Factory Outing, one can only gasp, and grope for the right word...Such an atmosphere of impending doom has not been created since Brighton Rock - except that Beryl Bainbridge is mercilessly comic instead of being mercilessly vicious. Specialising in successive denouements, and with her gift for collecting the most amazing detail, she is so in control of her marvellous little story that one hangs on her words from first to last. What originality, what pleasure - Sunday Times
Two very complex, funny female characters... They need each other although they would never admit it - Maxine Peake
An outrageously funny and horrifying novel - Graham Greene
How well Bainbridge uses both recognizable and even common circumstances and, this time, outright humor as shock absorbers... She's a considerable writer - sharp and knowing - Kirkus
Book Description
Beryl Bainbridge at her darkly comic best with a new introduction by Amanda Craig, The Bottle Factory Outing is being reissued as one of five titles celebrating Abacus's 50th anniversary.
From the Back Cover
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize
Winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize
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. Beryl Bainbridge dazzles readers in this offbeat, haunting yet hilarious novel.
'An outrageously funny and horrifying novel' Graham Greene
'Superb... taut in construction, expansive in characterisation, vibrant in atmosphere and profoundly comic' The Times
'The masterful restraint of Beryl Bainbridge's sentences reveals an author in complete control of her artistry' Guardian
About the Author
Beryl Bainbridge was one of the greatest living novelists. Author of seventeen novels, two travel books and five plays for stage and television, she was shortlisted for the Booker Prize five times, and won many literary awards including the Whitbread Prize and the Author of the Year Award at the British Book Awards. She died in July 2010.
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