In post war Britiain a new writing style emerged from the bleak times. It was commonly known as "kitchen sink drama". That sounds a little disrespectful now, perhaps, but these stories brought realism and raw emotion to their readers. David Storey's This Sporting Life, set in the industrial north, brilliantly conveys 21-year-old steelworker Arthur Machin's love of his rugby league, his success on the field, and his feelings towards his widowed landlady, as well as his bouts of doubt and an...

Two award-winning novels—including This Sporting Life—from the Man Booker Prize–winning British novelist and "an absorbing writer" ( The New Yorker).The son of a coal miner who went on to play professionally in the rugby league, British author David Storey drew heavily on his own background for his debut novel, This Sporting Life, which won the 1960 Macmillan Fiction Award. "The leading novelist of his generation," Storey was also a playw...

An art teacher searches for meaning in a strange town as his wife spirals into madness in this stunning novel from Man Booker Prize–winning author David StoreyColin Freestone had not planned to live in northern England. The people here are so passionate and raw that he does not expect to ever understand them or feel at ease. But when his wife, Yvonne, fell sick, she would only accept psychiatric care if she could be near her mother, so Colin had no choice but to mov...

Given its popularity, international football might be viewed as a prism through which the imagined community of the nation becomes closer to a manifest reality with matches providing examples of that community collectively rejoicing or crying. The sport potentially sheds insights on the complexities of ethnic and national identity, as it is a medium through which allegiances are (re)produced and expressed. Alongside the internationalisation of club teams, international representative teams...

'This is the story of Colin Saville, a miner's son, and his growth from the 1930s on, his rise in the world by way of grammar school and college. At first there is triumph in this, not least for the father who had spurred him on, but later "alienated from his class, and with nowhere yet to go" Colin finds himself spiritually destitute, bitter, still held against his will in the place that made him . . . A feast of a book . . . it engenders remarkable tension because this self-effacing auth...

An illustrated classic from the author of Saville and Flight into CamdenWritten before David Storey's 1976 Man Booker Prize–winning novel Saville, Edward tells the tale of a kindly and aging bishop who lives his life by just and holy standards—until one day he is surprised by the appearance of an old key, sitting in a curious box atop his study desk. Illustrated by the fine hand of Donald Parker, Edward follows the bishop...

The third son of a coalminer, David Storey takes us from his tough upbringing in Wakefield, to being 'sold' to Leeds Rugby League Club, to his escape to the Slade School of Art and his life in post-war London. He describes shocking scenes in the seventeen deprived East End schools in which he taught. He documents the childhood death of his eldest brother, addressing much of the memoir to him and exploring how this relates to his own sometimes paralysing depression, which haunted most of hi...

Territories are more than simply bounded spaces; they reflect the ways in which we think of geographic space. Territoriality, or laying claim to territory, can be seen as the spatial expression of power, with borders dividing those inside from those outside. The book provides an introduction to the concept of territory, the ways in which ideologies and social practices are manifested in space, the deployment of territorial strategies and the geographical outcomes of these.This revi...

"David Storey is a writer who genuinely extends the territory of drama" (Guardian)The Changing Room: "It's about exactly what it is: Storey offers us, with an unforced tenderness, the shifting moods of everyday experience...the scene is busy, purposeful and exhilerating. You'd never imagine realism could be this theatrical...The Changing Room takes you into its world in a way few plays achieve." (Independent on Sunday)

"David Storey is a writer who genuinely extends the territory of drama" (Guardian)The Contractor: "A subtle and poetic parable about the nature and joy of skilled work, the meaning of community and the effect of its loss" (Observer); Home: "about the solitude and dislocation of madness and...the decline of Britain itself...part of the play's appeal is that Storey leaves it to us to draw our own conclusions...a play that contains within itself the still, sad music of humanity." (Gua...

"David Storey is a writer who genuinely extends the territory of drama" (Guardian)The second volume of David Storey's plays in the "World Classics" series contains three of his most enduring works: "The Restoration of Arnold Middleton", "In Celebration" and "The March on Russia".

One works. One looks around. One meets people. But very little communication takes place . . . That is the nature of this little island.As five apparently unrelated characters meet in a seemingly insignificant garden, the autumnal sun shines overhead and everybody waits for rain.What they discuss is superficially anything that can pass the time. What is portrayed is the very essence of England, Englishness, class, unfulfilled ambition, loves lost and homes that no ...