British Novels in the 70s and 80s (Part 1)

"Our first text Magnus by the late Orcadian poet and novelist

George Mackay Brown will introduce us to a voice of urgent

lyricism, which shifts between the early Middle Ages in

Orkney and the Nazi regime. It is a text about faith,

community and the need for storytelling as a means to

confront life through myth. This saga will flow naturally into

Raymond Williams’ novel Border Country, which traces the

changes in class affiliations in a Welsh working class

community. Again it is about the need to relate history.

When we encounter Kay Dick’s They, a rediscovered minor

classic, we will be confronted by a vision of a very English

dystopia, centred about issues of censorship and control,

which is a vision of modern iconoclasm.

Le Carre’s work, Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy will introduce us

to Britain in decline, set against the backdrop of espionage,

but it is more than this, being a true condition of England

novel. We will evaluate Le Carre’s position as a major

novelist of the second part of the century.

We will conclude by picking up theme of storytelling again in

Graham Swift’s Waterland, a haunting meditation on the

nature of history itself."