Another Part of the Wood - Softcover

Penguin Decades bring you the novels that helped shape modern Britain. When they were published, some were bestsellers, some were considered scandalous, and others were simply misunderstood. All represent their time and helped define their generation, while today each is considered a landmark work of storytelling.

Joseph decides to take his mistress and son, together with a few friends, to stay in a cabin in deepest Wales for the weekend - with absolutely disastrous results. Beryl Bainbridge's gift for deadpan dialogue and spare narrative, and her darkly comic vision of the world, are all in evidence in this early novel.

PENGUIN DECADES

50s 60s 70s 80s

Penguin Decades bring you the novels that helped shape modern Britain. When they were published, some were bestsellers, some were considered scandalous, and others were simply misunderstood. All represent their time and helped define their generation, while today each is considered a landmark work of storytelling.

The 1960s was the decade of social revolution, anti-war protests, liberal reforms, civil rights and psychedelia. Skirts got shorter and hair got longer, London swung, the Berlin Wall went up, a man walked on the moon, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones reigned and England even won the world cup.

Beryl Bainbridge's Another Part of the Wood was published in 1968 and foreshadowed many of the themes of her later novels, especially the cruelties and power struggles which exist among people. It is high summer, and two families are holidaying in Wales, where there is nothing to do but play Monopoly, take long walks and snipe at one another. But as the cramped conditions take their toll, an unexpected tragedy lurks.

With a new introduction by Lynn Barber