We have updated our Privacy Policy Please take a moment to review it. By continuing to use this site, you agree to the terms of our updated Privacy Policy.
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize
Named ‘one of the greatest novels of all time’ by the Observer
With a new introduction by Amanda Craig
Freda and Brenda are friends spending their days in an Italian-run wine-bottling factory in North London. When a works outing materialises it offers promise for Freda, but terror for Brenda. Unexpected passions run high on the chilly day of liberty and their lives are never the same again. Beryl Bainbridge dazzles readers in this offbeat, haunting yet hilarious novel.
‘An outrageously funny and horrifying novel’
GRAHAM GREENE
‘Two very complex, funny female characters. They need each other although they would never admit it’
MAXINE PEAKE
‘Superb… vibrant… profoundly comic’
THE TIMES
‘Few writers offer more control and delight’
GUARDIAN
Named ‘one of the greatest novels of all time’ by the Observer
With a new introduction by Amanda Craig
Freda and Brenda are friends spending their days in an Italian-run wine-bottling factory in North London. When a works outing materialises it offers promise for Freda, but terror for Brenda. Unexpected passions run high on the chilly day of liberty and their lives are never the same again. Beryl Bainbridge dazzles readers in this offbeat, haunting yet hilarious novel.
‘An outrageously funny and horrifying novel’
GRAHAM GREENE
‘Two very complex, funny female characters. They need each other although they would never admit it’
MAXINE PEAKE
‘Superb… vibrant… profoundly comic’
THE TIMES
‘Few writers offer more control and delight’
GUARDIAN
Newsletter Signup
By clicking ‘Sign Up,’ I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Hachette Book Group’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
Reviews
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
Bainbridge's barbed wit is underpinned by poignant failed dreams... This is a winner by any measure
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
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
An outrageously funny and horrifying novel
There is a uniquely northern comedy in Beryl Bainbridge's novels... It chimes with life's absurdity and hard-won wisdom
Two very complex, funny female characters... They need each other although they would never admit it
This is a superb novel. It is taut in construction, expansive in characterization, vibrant in atmosphere and profoundly comic