Product Description

What were the achievements of the 'angry' writers who emerged in the fifties? Historically, they gave birth to the satire movement of the 1960s - "Beyond the Fringe", "That Was the Week that Was" and "Private Eye". Their satire and irreverence aroused enthusiasm in man, and a new 'anti-Establishment' mood developed from "Look Back in Anger" and "The Outsider". All literary movements acquire enemies, but the Angry Young Men of the 1950s accumulated more than most. Why? Wilson takes us on a journey back to this era, and reveals fascinating and sometimes disturbing stories from the Greats, including John Osborne, Kingsley Amis, Kenneth Tynan and John Braine - to name but a few. At all events, the story of that period makes a marvellously lively tale which, most importantly, was recorded by someone who was actually there.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #366865 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

FT Magazine, April 28 2007
"an enjoyable memoir-cum-history...captures an entertaining
flavour of its times"

The Literary Review, May 2007
"As a guide to the period, The Angry Years has much to recommend
it"

About the Author
Colin Wilson is a prolific British writer. In 1956, at the age of 25, he published The Outsider, which examines the seminal works of various key literary and cultural figures. Wilson was labelled as an Angry Young Man, though he had little in common with other members of the group. Wilson has also written extensive non-fiction books about crime and various metaphysical and occult themes.

Customer Reviews

LOOK BACK IN AMAZEMENT
There have been several books about the Angry Young Men, but this one is unique in that it is written by one of the few surviving 'Angries' who is able to skilfully recreate the literary battle-zone of the 1950s. Not only does Colin Wilson chronicle the dizzying lifestyles of some of the more successful players on the scene, like John Osborne, he also deals, sometimes hilariously, with the supporting cast of beats and rebels, writers like Ferdinand Trocchi and the phenomenally successful J.P. Donleavy, both of whom produced pornography for the Olympia Press in Paris. In time many of the writers fell out of favour, succumbed to drink and debauchery and, in Kenneth Tynan's case, regular 'spanking' sessions. All this Wilson narrates with a kind of sympathetic relish. Particularly useful and fair-minded are his literary assessments. In order to produce this book, Colin Wilson did a great deal of hard reading. Hence he is able to follow through the careers of many of the forgotten figures, comment intelligently on their later works and not merely the titles that once seized the headlines. He tends to judge these writers from his own special 'existential' viewpoint: hence he rules rather harshly on Sam Beckett but is generous and appreciative, say, of the later 'visionary' plays of Arnold Wesker. An essential, bedrock work for students of culture and literary history.

Three cheers!
At last! An intelligent book about the Angry Young Men containing careful assessments of the lives and work of those involved. The fact that Wilson himself was considered to be part of this movement, adds authenticity to the text. A 'must read' for any student of post-war British literature, it forms the perfect antidote to the ill-researched 'Angry Young Men: a literary comedy of the 1950's' by Humphrey Carpenter and 'Success Stories' the vitriolic tirade by Harry Ritchie.

An engaging literary history
Colin Wilson has written an informative, entertaining and enlightening literary history of 'The Angry Years', a period in British literary history with which he is intimately familiar. The book chronicles the rise and fall of several prominent figures on England's literary scene beginning in the 1950s: Kingsley Amis, John Brain, John Wain, John Osborne, and many others. Wilson himself was lumped in with this artificial - 'press-created' - movement of 'Angry Young Men', so he is well-positioned to bring to life what might seem like a distant era, but one that is actually still relevant to today. It's hard not to look at a history like this with a touch of romantic nostalgia - even if one wasn't around for it... Something about the struggles of these very human writers possesses all the drama and pathos of life in general, and one is fascinated reading about the ways in which they attempt to frame through their art their own experiences and times. Wilson brings all this to life in a narrative as compelling as a novel. He provides copious insights into the lives of these writers and their work, as well as elucidating the context in which his own work arose. In this way, the book forms a fascinating adjunct to his Outsider series, and it enables one a fresh view of Wilson's own opus. This alone is worth the price of admission, but Wilson's ability to engage us in the lives of some fascinating writers in a highly readable, entertaining style, make the book easy to enthusiastically recommend.