John Braine (1922-86) made a strong impact with his first novel,

Room at the Top

(1957), which became a best-seller and was adapted into a powerful British New Wave film in 1959. He went on to write twelve more novels, but these never enjoyed the same critical or commercial success as his first. He also produced two non-fiction books, a How-To manual called

Writing a Novel

(1974) and, in 1978, a critical biography of a writer with whom he felt some affinity, J(ohn) B(oynton) Priestley (1894-1984). Both of these are readable but undistinguished.

Braine is usually assigned to three overlapping categories. The first, and most important, is the  “Angry Young Men”, which was neither a coherent movement nor (the usual view today) merely a media invention, but a loose assemblage of writers

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Citation: Tredell, Nicolas. "John Braine". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 June 2014 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=544, accessed 05 October 2024.]

544 John Braine 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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