The Bottle Factory Outing: Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, 1974

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The Bottle Factory Outing is a 1974 novel by English writer Beryl Bainbridge. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize that year, [1] won the Guardian Fiction Prize [2] and is regarded as one of her best. [3] It is also listed as one of the 100 greatest novels of all time by Robert McCrum of The Observer. [4] The book was inspired by Beryl Bainbridge's own experiences working as a cellar girl in a bottling factory after her divorce in 1959. [5] [6] Plot [ edit ] Peter Tinniswood in The Times writes "This is a superb novel. It is taut in construction, expansive in characterization, vibrant in atmosphere and profoundly comic". [7]

Jordison, Sam (18 October 2013). "The Bottle Factory Outing's unsettling brilliance is short but barbed". The Guardian . Retrieved 3 January 2023. Freda's also obsessively infatuated with her employer's nephew, Vittorio. He's the tall, rich, young and handsome Italian man and she spends lots of time daydreaming about living in his castello or his swanky flat in Hampstead. The funny thing is that one is never given actual proof that Vittorio actually has a castello in Italy and the flat in Hampstead is conjured out of Freda's fictional dream for future marital bliss. Freda is often found ogling him at work when she thinks he's busy. But the most humorous part of it all is that he's aware that she wants him and is always watching him. She kinda reminds me of this little dog and how he tries to hide the way he is salivating over the man's sandwich:Bainbridge tended to write autobiographical novels, often adding a murder into the mix to spice things up... this is no exception. But the outing itself goes on for too long- almost half of the book- and I found myself willing it to be over, which is not my usual response to Bainbridge's writing. It seemed to me inevitable who the victim would be, even how the body would be disposed of.

This book came my way courtesy of an Abacus Books 50th Anniversary gift box, and a few details made me reach for it first: the Camden (London) setting; a new Introduction by Amanda Craig; and the beguiling strangeness of Bainbridge herself. When Freda spoke like that Brenda would have run into another room, had there been one. Uneasily she said,‘I do participate. More than you think.’Our 750ml sports bottle is ideal for the thirsty athletes amongst us. We find this bottle very popular with gyms, football/rugby/tennis/squash clubs and corporate banded sporting events. My first Beryl Bainbridge and possibly my last unless my Goodreads friends have any recommendations. Take a lesson from it then. It could happen to you. When I go I shall have my family about me – daughters – sons – my husband, grey and distinguished, dabbing a handkerchief to his lips …’ Oh dear! I had such high hopes of this novel. The edition that I have just read has printed on its cover laudatory comments about the story by such literary heavyweights as Graham Greene and William Trevor. The former describes "The Bottle Factory Outing" as "an outrageously funny and horrifying story". In addition, the novel was shortlisted for the UK's most prestigious literary award - then known as The Booker Prize. And, it has apparently been cited by The Observer newspaper (a Sunday broadsheet in the UK) as one of the greatest 100 novels ever written. Well, I must have missed something. It's a moderately amusing novel whose glints of humour are overshadowed by the dullness and the implausibility of much of the story. "The Bottle Factory Outing" is a desperately disappointing read that deserves none of the accolades that have been heaped upon it. The masterful restraint of Beryl Bainbridge’s sentences reveals an author in complete control of her artistry’ Guardian