World War II left Great Britain devastated and destroyed both economically and socially. Although the nation was at the cusp of a new era of peace, the postwar years were a time of rebuilding and austerity. Volume 139 of the DLB series focuses on works of short story writers from 1946 to 1980 and the rapid growth-economically and culturally-of a nation under great reform. During the long recovery process, the flourishing short-story market that had supported many writers before the war promptly declined. For those authors who diligently continued to write, their work became a vehicle for social commentary. The writers included in this volume bring to the forefront grim subjects such as isolation, lack of communication, frustration and quiet desperation and succeed in exploring the British people-typically urban and suburban middle classes.
30 ENTRIES INCLUDE: A. L. Barker, Tan Barstow, HYS Davies, Rian Glanville, Susan Hill, Gwyn Jones, Francis King, Doris Lessing, V. S. Pritchett, Alan Sillitoe, Iain Crichton Smith, Angus Wilson.