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

Product Information

I don’t think the era of the book is directly named, but it seems like the 60s or early 70s. Freda and Brenda are modern women of a sort; Brenda has run away from her hard-drinking, middle-class farming husband, and Freda has no relations other than an elderly and judgemental aunt. They rely on themselves, and to some extent on each other - although they each display contempt for the other’s eccentricities and shortcomings. Neither can afford to live alone, yet their bedsit (and shared bed) cannot comfortably accommodate them both.

By consolidating the manufacturing and printing processes in the one location, we reduce the carbon footprint normally associated with this business. We're also pleased to say that we've achieved an impressive 35% recycle rate whilst managing to maintain our exceptionally high standards of quality, something that's difficult to achieve in this industry. When life gives you lemons but you've got no sugar and the water is tainted, say goodbye to the lemonade... You should be terribly keen,’ said Freda. ‘All that fresh air and the green grass blowing. You should be beside yourself at the prospect.’Jordison, Sam (18 October 2013). "The Bottle Factory Outing's unsettling brilliance is short but barbed". The Guardian . Retrieved 3 January 2023. The masterful restraint of Beryl Bainbridge’s sentences reveals an author in complete control of her artistry’ Guardian With this approach, we hope we have ensured the life of the building for another 100 years, and for many more chapters in its story. The few Beryl Bainbridge books I've read are all slightly quirky and odd - populated with characters who, if they were flat shapes would be all corners and sharp edges rather than smooth and curved! This is no exception. And yet, on reflection I did enjoy it - and I judge that partly on the basis that I laughed out loud several times when I was reading this book! (that in itself was an uncomfortable feeling though as I read this book on the dreaded, evil, Kindle, while walking the dog in the park - the looks from other dog-walkers and park -users at the man with the dog suddenly breaking out into laughter will forever be in my memory and associated with this book!).

Brenda had fashioned a bolster to put down the middle of the bed and a row of books to ensure that they lay less intimately at night. Freda complained that the books were uncomfortable – but then she had never been married. 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…’ Two very complex, funny female characters. They need each other although they would never admit it’ Maxine Peake Set in London in the 1970s, the novel is essentially the story of two lonely young women, Brenda and Freda, who share a bedsit and who are as different from each other as chalk is from cheese. Brenda has an unhappy marriage largely behind her - she came to London from the north of England primarily to escape the clutches of her frequently drunken husband who is prone to urinating on the doorstep of the family home. Privately educated Brenda is a diffident and downtrodden person who has little or no personal confidence. From an early age, she was taught by her mother to give in on things she doesn't want to do and to resist those things that she does want to do. Freda is from a lower social class than Brenda but has bags more confidence and is not averse to speaking her mind. She has ambition and determination. Both characters work at a wine bottling factory down the road from where they live. They are two of only three women employed at the factory, which is staffed primarily by Italian male immigrants. One of the male employees, Rossi, is keen on Brenda. Freda is determined to forge a relationship with one of the other employees, Vittorio. The thrust of the plot is an outing for everyone at the factory - to a stately home with beautiful gardens - that Freda has organised. However, Freda's plans go awry. The outing becomes something rather different, with fewer participants. Tragedy strikes during the course of the trip, an event that has far-reaching consequences for all of the factory staff.

Some inkling of those horrors comes when Brenda’s mother-in-law arrives and tries to shoot her with an air pistol. Prompting another moment of unsettling brilliance, as we look on the aftermath: To which Brenda did not reply. She looked and kept silent, watching Freda’s smooth white face and the shining feather of yellow hair that swung to the curve of her jaw. She had large blue eyes with curved lashes, a gentle rosy mouth, a nose perfectly formed. She was five foot ten in height, twenty-six years old, and she weighed sixteen stone. All her life she had cherished the hope that one day she would become part of a community, a family. She wanted to be adored and protected, she wanted to be called ‘little one’.