<div>At the height of the 1960s, a British writer accepts an academic post in America for a year that he&rsquo;ll never forget English author James Walker has three books to his name, each greeted with middling success and then promptly forgotten. But his r&eacute;sum&eacute; is significant enough to earn him a yearlong appointment at Benedict Arnold University as the American college&rsquo;s writer in residence. At Benedict Arnold, Walker is something of a celebrity&mdash;a firebrand of 1960s British literary culture whose work, though perhaps met with shrugs at home, is the subject of vibrant scholarly criticism among American academics. Walker, of course, is not quite what some were expecting, and culture clashes abound as he encounters the tropes of American academia in the sixties. Fusty, buttoned-up professors, spirited advocates of free love, and aggressively ambitious colleagues collide to ensure that Walker&rsquo;s year in America will be anything but ordinary. </div>

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Stepping Westward

<div>Looking to strike it rich with television gold, an English media tycoon enlists the help of an unassuming novelist to script his small-screen epic, to disastrous&mdash;and hilarious&mdash;effect The year is 1986, and the cuts imposed by Margaret Thatcher&rsquo;s government have trickled down to university life, where departments are being forced to shave their payrolls to account for reduced public funding. Meanwhile, at Eldorado Television, a different kind of cut is about to wreak havoc. Lord Mellow, head of the declining studio, watches as his last-ditch effort to produce a hit series falls to pieces. The show&rsquo;s star, the volatile but vaunted Sir Luke Trimingham, has just declared that he will quit unless the script is entirely rewritten. Desperate to save the project, Eldorado brings university lecturer and author Henry Babbacombe into the fold to write thirteen new episodes of ambitious television&mdash;something so grand that the leading man cannot possibly refuse it. But the production is plagued from the start, suffering endless calamities with its unpredictable actors and crew, whose behind-the-scenes drama rivals anything Babbacombe could dream up. </div>

Cuts

<div>A headstrong young journalist goes on the adventure of a lifetime, traveling through Europe to find the world&rsquo;s most enigmatic philosopher Bazlo Criminale is one of Europe&rsquo;s most legendary living men. A mysterious novelist and thinker known for his extreme elusiveness, the beloved Criminale is a cultural icon of the highest order. Seeking to find the man behind the myth, a London television-news station hires Francis Jay, an enterprising young reporter, to find Criminale. From Vienna to Budapest to the picturesque lakeshores of Italy, Jay journeys across the continent&mdash;and even briefly to Brazil&mdash;interviewing the man&rsquo;s biographer, his publisher, and his former lover, all of whom have their own interests at stake. Through literary award dinners and other examples of &ldquo;culture as spectacle,&rdquo; Jay must navigate the chaotic world of post&ndash;Cold War Europe as he chases the specter of a literary legend. </div>

Doctor Criminale

<div>Malcolm Bradbury&rsquo;s humorous look at Britain&rsquo;s transition to midcentury modernity After spending a year teaching in an American university in the 1950s, Malcolm Bradbury returned to England only to realize that his native country had become nearly as mystifying to him as the American Midwest. As Britain marched toward a new decade, much of the country was changing inexorably, its agrarian past paved over by suburban developers, its quiet traditionalism replaced by beehive hairdos and shiny, glass-walled office buildings. And so, to confront this curious moment in British history, Bradbury turned to the sharpest tool in his arsenal: humor. In All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go, he writes of a country balancing precariously on the boundary of two worlds, with the wry wit and keenly observant eye that have made him one of the twentieth century&rsquo;s greatest satirists. </div>

All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go

<div>Malcolm Bradbury&rsquo;s classic skewering of 1970s academia, hailed by the New York Times as &ldquo;an encyclopedia of radical chic as well as a genuinely comic novel&rdquo; Among the painfully hip students and teachers at the liberal University of Watermouth, Howard Kirk appears to be the most stylish of them all. With his carefully manicured mustache and easygoing radicalism, Kirk prides himself on being among the most highly evolved teachers on his redbrick campus. But beneath Kirk&rsquo;s scholarly bohemianism and studied cool is a ruthless, self-serving Machiavellian streak. A sociology lecturer who outwardly espouses freethinking nonconformity, Kirk is himself vain and bigoted, dismissing female students and colleagues while releasing vitriol against those who contradict him, particularly his clever, wayward wife, Barbara, the long-suffering mother of his two children. A funny and incisive satire of academia and ideological hypocrisy, The History Man is one of Malcolm Bradbury&rsquo;s most acclaimed novels and remains just as sharp and witty today as when it was first published. </div>

The History Man

<div>Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize: In this comedic novel, an English professor collides with disaster at the peak of the Cold War Shortly after his plane first grazes the tarmac in the eastern European nation of Slaka, Dr. Angus Petworth is beset by a cavalcade of misadventures. A university lecturer and seasoned international traveler, Petworth is nevertheless unprepared for the oddities of culture and circumstance that await him on the other side of the iron curtain. In two eventful weeks, Petworth gives an incendiary interview, is seduced by a femme fatale, and becomes embroiled in a plot of international intrigue, all of which conspire to give the mild, unassuming professor way more than he bargained for. Satirizing everything from critics and diplomats to Marxism and academia, Malcolm Bradbury&rsquo;s Rates of Exchange is a witty and lighthearted novel of cultural interchange at the height of the Cold War.</div>

Rates of Exchange

<div>Sharp-witted novels and social commentary by the beloved British critic, teacher, and author of the &ldquo;outstanding&rdquo; comic masterpiece, The History Man (The Guardian). &ldquo;A satirist of great assurance and accomplishment,&rdquo; Malcolm Bradbury remains one of the sharpest comic minds of the twentieth century (The Observer). Cuts and Doctor Criminale&mdash;like &ldquo;all Bradbury&rsquo;s novels, for all their surface wit and comedy, have serious moral and philosophical subtexts&rdquo; (The Guardian), as do his barbed and brilliant observations on 1950s culture shock in Great Britain in All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go. Taken together, these three volumes illustrate the myriad ways &ldquo;Bradbury dazzles&rdquo; (Kirkus Reviews). Cuts: In Bradbury&rsquo;s &ldquo;outrageously funny&rdquo; satire set in Thatcher-era Great Britain, a media tycoon, looking to strike it rich with television gold, recruits an unassuming novelist and academic to script his small-screen epic, with disastrous&mdash;and hilarious&mdash;consequences (Publishers Weekly). &ldquo;It is funny, exact&mdash;and pretty bloody serious.&rdquo; &mdash;The Observer All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go: In this nonfiction social commentary, Bradbury confronts a curious moment in British history. After teaching abroad for a year in the 1950s, he returned to find that his native country had become nearly as mystifying to him as the American Midwest. As Britain marched toward a new decade, much of the country was changing rapidly, its agrarian past paved over by suburban developer and its quiet traditionalism replaced by beehive hairdos and shiny, glass-walled office buildings. With wry wit, he reacts to this uncomfortable transition to mid-twentieth-century modernism. &ldquo;A master not only of language and comedy but of feeling too.&rdquo; &mdash;The Sunday Times Doctor Criminale: &ldquo;Playful, smart and entertaining,&rdquo; Bradbury&rsquo;s comic novel follows enterprising young reporter Francis Jay as he attempts to navigate the chaotic world of post&ndash;Cold War Europe in pursuit of the specter of literary legend Bazlo Criminale, a mysterious novelist and thinker known for his extreme elusiveness (The New York Times Book Review). &ldquo;Bradbury writes with splendid energy and a fertile mind.&rdquo; &mdash;Los Angeles Times Book Review</div>

The Collected Works Volume Two

<div>Three satires of academia by the beloved British critic, teacher, and novelist&mdash;including his &ldquo;outstanding&rdquo; comic masterpiece, The History Man (The Guardian). &ldquo;A satirist of great assurance and accomplishment,&rdquo; Malcolm Bradbury remains one of the sharpest comic novelists of the twentieth century (The Observer). In Rates of Exchange and Stepping Westward, as &ldquo;in almost all of Bradbury&rsquo;s novels, the most frequently recurring theme is that of the slightly na&iuml;ve, liberal innocent, usually an academic, hilariously abroad in an unfamiliar, and occasionally slightly threatening, context&rdquo; (The Guardian). In The History Man, the tables are turned, and the professor himself is the threat, resulting in &ldquo;grim wit, chill comedy and a fictional energy which is as imaginative as the tale is shocking&rdquo; (A. S. Byatt). Rates of Exchange: University lecturer and seasoned international traveler Angus Petworth is unprepared for the oddities of culture and circumstance that await him on the other side of the iron curtain&mdash;in the eastern European nation of Slaka. In two eventful weeks, the professor gives an incendiary interview, is seduced by a femme fatale, and becomes embroiled in a plot of international intrigue. Satirizing everything from critics and diplomats to Marxism and academia, Rates of Exchange is a witty and lighthearted novel of cultural interchange at the height of the Cold War, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. &ldquo;Explosively funny.&rdquo; &mdash;The Daily Telegraph The History Man: Bradbury&rsquo;s classic skewering of 1970s academia and ideological hypocrisy centers around Professor Howard Kirk, who prides himself on being the most highly evolved teacher on campus. But beneath Kirk&rsquo;s scholarly bohemianism and studied cool is a ruthless, self-serving Machiavellian streak. Kirk is vain and bigoted, dismissing female students and colleagues while releasing vitriol against those who contradict him, particularly his clever, wayward wife, Barbara, the long-suffering mother of his two children. Someone needs to teach him a lesson . . . &ldquo;[A] genuinely comic novel.&rdquo; &mdash;The New York Times Stepping Westward: At the height of the swinging sixties, mediocre British writer James Walker accepts an academic post in America for a year he&rsquo;ll never forget. As Benedict Arnold University&rsquo;s writer in residence, he finds himself something of a celebrity&mdash;his work, though met with shrugs at home, is the subject of vibrant scholarly criticism among American academics. But the buttoned-up professor is about to take a crash course in culture shock taught by spirited advocates of free love and aggressively ambitious colleagues. &ldquo;Highly entertaining.&rdquo; &mdash;Margaret Drabble, The Sunday Times</div>

Malcolm Bradbury
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Books By Malcolm Bradbury (8 Books)

Stepping Westward

Cuts

Doctor Criminale

All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go

The History Man

Rates of Exchange

The Collected Works Volume Two

The Collected Works Volume One

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Malcolm BradburyFollow this author