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

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Yet even a master like Bainbridge can not have planned or foreseen one of the other disturbing double-takes the novel provokes. The Bottle Factory Outing is a curious book to read so soon after the UK’s EU referendum. It is set in England just before it joined the EEC and it is a drab, grey, poor world of rancid bedsits, where olives are exotic and hard to find and Italians an almost entirely unknown quantity:

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize and named ‘one of the greatest novels of all time’ by the Observer, this riveting novel shows Beryl Bainbridge at her darkly comic best Our 300ml sports bottle is very popular with young children due to its weight and size. This makes it an ideal choice for junior schools and nurseries. Despite occasional moments of effective comedy, "The Bottle Factory Outing" is an uninteresting story whose plot is ludicrously unrealistic. The writing style is dull and uneven and the characterisation is largely unconvincing. I simply could not believe that two individuals like Brenda and Freda would ever be friends with each other, let alone share a bedsit - and even a double bed (albeit with a protective barrier of books and bolsters to ensure the preservation of each other's private space). The actions of several other characters also seem highly improbable. These include a visit from Brenda's gun-toting mother-in-law and the disposal of a dead body in what can only be described as a most ridiculous manner. There are occasions too when the dialogue is unconvincing. At one point, Freda says the following words to Brenda: "You are not flotsam washed up on the shore, without recourse to the sea"! It is simply not credible that, given what we know of her character, Freda would speak in that way. I am afraid I simply could not believe the astonishingly grotesque conclusion of the story or the actions of the individuals involved. And I really didn't care about most of the major characters. Oh, it's delicious. It's like a French movie in a book: you know it's over because the credits roll up the screen. 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 . . .’A string vest?’ said Brenda dubiously, and Freda couldn’t explain – it would have been wasted on her. 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.

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.’ It was unfair. She told her so. ‘I always wanted to live in a house with a big kitchen. I wanted a mother in a string vest and a pinny who made bread and dumpling stew.’ Harry Blamires likens Freda's romantic dreams to those of Joyce's Gerty MacDowell in Ulysses and he concludes "Beryl Bainbridge manages plots of escalating comedy and grotesqueness with consummate skill. She is brilliant at scattering humour over seemingly gruesome terrain". [6] Overall area-weighted U-value Largely uninsulated but 15% improvement on existing fabric where updates Freda was enjoying herself. She stopped a tear with the tip of her finger and brought it to her mouth.

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It put me in mind of my hazy recollections of Play For Today (1970s BBC adult drama TV programme), or the more playful work of Mike Leigh and Ken Loach. It is quintessentially English, and also makes some very astute observations about culture, class, desire, difference, gender differences and human relationships. We have four different size bottles to choose from, as such you can tailor the bottle size and shape specifically to suit your needs. You can choose from several different colours (5 colours available) of sports bottles. You also have the option to choose the colour of the cap (7 colours available), and with our fantastic printing facilities you can have your own artwork or logo printed on them to perfectly promote your business/school/club.