The Penguin Book of Modern British Short Stories

The Penguin Book of Modern British Short Stories, edited by novelist and critic Malcolm Bradbury, is a collection of the finest short stories from our best loved authors, including Samuel Beckett, Graham Greene, William Golding, Kingsley Amis, Doris Lessing, Muriel Spark, J. G. Ballard, William Trevor, Ian McEwan, Martin Amis, Rose Tremain, Salman Rushdie, Graham Swift and Kazuo Ishiguro. 
 
'The short story has become one of the major forms of modern literary expression - in some ways the most modern of them all.' 
 
The story of the British short story since the Second World War is one of change and revolution and this powerful and moving collection brilliantly demonstrates the evolution of the form. 
 
Containing thirty-four of the most widely regarded postwar British writers, it features tales of love and crime, comedy and the supernatural, the traditional as well as the experimental. This many-storied, many-splendored collection is a brilliant portrait of the generation of writers who have immediately influenced the brightest, sharpest and most intriguing writers who continue to emerge today. 
 
Malcolm Bradbury was a novelist, critic, television dramatist and professor of American studies and creative writing. He was awarded the CBE in 1991 for his services to Literature and was knighted in the 2000 New Year's Honours List. He died in 2000.

Malcolm Bradbury was a novelist, critic, television dramatist and professor of American studies and creative writing. He was awarded the CBE in 1991 for his services to Literature and was knighted in the 2000 New Year's Honours List. He died in 2000.

'The short story has become one of the major forms of modern literary expression - in some ways the most modern of them all.' 
 
The story of the British short story since the Second World War is one of change and revolution and this powerful and moving collection brilliantly demonstrates the evolution of the form. 
 
Containing thirty-four of the most widely regarded postwar British writers, it features tales of love and crime, comedy and the supernatural, the traditional as well as the experimental. This many-storied, many-splendored collection is a brilliant portrait of the generation of writers who have immediately influenced the brightest, sharpest and most intriguing writers who continue to emerge today.

A Room with a View

Written in 1908, A Room With A View is one of E.M. Forster's earliest and most celebrated works.

'My first intimation of the possibilities of fiction' Zadie Smith 
 
More than a love story, A Room with a View is a penetrating social comedy and a brilliant study of contrasts - in values, social class, and cultural perspectives - and the ingenuity of fate. Its heroine, Lucy Honeychurch, visits Italy with her prim cousin Charlotte as a chaperone, where she meets the unconventional, lower class Mr. Emerson and his son, George. Upon her return to England, Lucy becomes engaged to the supercilious Cecil Vyse, but finds herself increasingly torn between the expectations of the world in which she moves and the passionate yearnings of her heart. 
 
With an Introduction by Malcolm Bradbury

Edward Morgan Forster was born in London in 1879. He wrote six novels, four of which appeared before the First World War, Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), The Longest Journey (1907), A Room with a View (1908), and Howard&rsquo;s End (1910). An interval of fourteen years elapsed before he published A Passage to India. Maurice, his novel on a homosexual theme, finished in 1914, was published posthumously in 1971. 
 
 
Malcolm Bradbury was a novelist, critic, television dramatist and Emeritus Professor of American Studies at the University of East Anglia. He is author of the novels Eating People is Wrong (1959); Stepping Westward (1965); The History Man (1975); Rates of Exchange (1983) which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Cuts: A Very Short Novel (1987); and Doctor Criminale (1992). His critical works include The Modern American Novel (1984; revised edition, 1992); No, Not Bloomsbury (essays, 1987); The Modern world: Ten Great Writers (1988); From Puritanism to Post-modernism: A History of American Literature (with Richard Ruland, 1991).

Forster's social comedy is a witty observation of the English middle classes as they holiday abroad in Florence. One of these tourists is Lucy Honeychurch, a young girl whose heart is awakened by her experiences in Italy.

A Guide to European Literature 1890-1930

Modernism

An exploration of the ideas, groupings and the social tensions that shaped the transformation of life caused by the changes of modernity in art, science, politics and philosophy

Christopher Bigsby

Malcolm Bradbury

Judy Parfitt

Lewis Fiander

Richard Vernon

Maggie Steed

Maureen Lipman

Full cast

A BBC Radio 4 Comedy drama

An eight-part comedy serial set in a provincial university with a most unusual English department 
 
Against his better judgement, Andrew Patterson accepts a job as a lecturer in English literature at a remote Northern redbrick university. His departmental colleagues are an eccentric bunch: doddery Head of English Professor Misty, who looks like he went to school with Little Dorrit; Amy Spade, who's suffering from an identity crisis and given to sending anonymous letters, and man-eating Melissa Murgatroyd, the honeypot of the Senior Common Room. Fortunately, Patterson has old friend and fellow lecturer Victor to show him the ropes - but even so, his first day does not go well. 
 
University life continues to throw up bewildering challenges, from tracking down Misty's lawnmower to surviving his inaugural lecture, writing a soft porn novel and dealing with the demands (both erotic and otherwise) of his students. Meanwhile, his wife Jane is becoming worryingly keen on their nerdy neighbour Cuthbertson, and the English department is in crisis... Can Patterson salvage his marriage and make it through term without getting fired? 
 
Written by acclaimed authors Malcolm Bradbury and Christopher Bigsby, both former university lecturers, this lively campus comedy was the first sitcom to be broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Australian Lewis Fiander stars as the hapless Patterson, with John Barron as the Vice-Chancellor, Richard Vernon as Professor Misty and Maureen Lipman as Melissa. 
 
 
Production credits 
Written by Malcolm Bradbury and Christopher Bigsby 
Produced by Geoffrey Perkins 
Theme music: 'Jester's Jig' by Gordon Giltrap 
 
 
Cast 
Patterson - Lewis Fiander 
Vice-Chancellor - John Barron 
Professor Misty - Richard Vernon 
Jane - Judy Parfitt 
Melissa - Maureen Lipman 
Cuthbertson - Richard O'Callaghan 
Victor - Hugh Thomas 
Amy Spade/Cleaner - Maggie Steed 
Probity - Jack May 
Mary/Lady Professor/Mrs Jackson/Mrs Misty/Verity - Frances Jeater 
Mrs Vice-Chancellor - Irene Prador 
Sandra - Liza Hayden 
Bannerji - Tariq Yunus 
Jake - Philip Davis 
Valerie Candle - Leueen Willoughby 
Inspector Firestone - David Tate 
Ancient boy - Patrick Barr 
Hotel manager - Rowland Davies 
Landlady - Patricia Hayes 
 
 
First broadcast BBC Radio 3, 19 February-9 April 1981 
 
©2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Malcolm Bradbury

Books by Malcolm Bradbury

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter