The Bottle Factory Outing

Surprises abound in Beryl Bainbridge’s unsettling comic novel, praised by fellow author Graham Greene as both ‘outrageously funny and horrifying’.

"How well Bainbridge uses both recognizable and even common circumstances and, this time, outright humour as shock absorbers... She's a considerable writer - sharp and knowing."  -  Kirkus Reviews

Freda and Brenda spend their days together working in an Italian-run wine-bottling factory, and their nights sharing a double bed - separated by a prudent row of books - in their pokey London bed-sit. 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.

"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."  -  Sam Jordison, The Guardian

Dame Beryl Margaret Bainbridge DBE was primarily known for her works of psychological fiction, often set among the English working classes. Bainbridge won the Whitbread Award twice and was nominated for the Booker Prize five times. In 2008, The Times newspaper named Bainbridge among their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945"