{"id":163,"date":"2019-05-10T15:41:15","date_gmt":"2019-05-10T15:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/chapter\/beryl-bainbridge\/"},"modified":"2019-08-28T19:22:01","modified_gmt":"2019-08-28T19:22:01","slug":"beryl-bainbridge","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/chapter\/beryl-bainbridge\/","title":{"raw":"Beryl Bainbridge (1932\u20132010)","rendered":"Beryl Bainbridge (1932\u20132010)"},"content":{"raw":"

Biography<\/h1>\nDame Beryl Margaret Bainbridge was an English writer from\u00a0Liverpool. She was primarily known for her works of\u00a0psychological fiction, often macabre tales set among the English working class. Bainbridge won the\u00a0Whitbread Awards\u00a0prize for best novel in\u00a01977 and 1996; she was nominated five times for the\u00a0Booker Prize.\n\nThe summer she left school, she fell in love with a former German prisoner of war,\u00a0who was waiting to be repatriated. For the next six\u00a0years, the couple corresponded and tried to get permission for the German man to return to Britain so that they could marry. But permission was not granted and the relationship ended in 1953. The following year, she married artist\u00a0Austin Davies. The two divorced soon after, leaving Bainbridge a single mother of two\u00a0children. She later had a third child by\u00a0Alan Sharp, a novelist and screenwriter. Bainbridge spent her early years working as an actress, and she appeared in one 1961 episode of the soap opera\u00a0Coronation Street<\/em>\u00a0playing an anti-nuclear protester.\n\nTo help fill her time, Bainbridge began to write, mainly about incidents from her childhood. Her first novel,\u00a0Harriet Said . . ., <\/em>was rejected by several publishers, one of whom found the central characters \"repulsive almost beyond belief.\" It was eventually published in 1972, four years after her third novel (Another Part of the Wood<\/em>). Her second and third novels were published (1967\/68) and were received well by critics. She wrote and published seven more novels during the 1970s, the fifth o which,\u00a0Injury Time<\/em>, was awarded the\u00a0Whitbread prize\u00a0for best novel in 1977.\n\nFrom 1980 onwards, eight more novels appeared. In the 1990s, Bainbridge turned to historical fiction. These novels continued to be popular with critics and were also met with commercial success.\u00a0Among her historical fiction novels are\u00a0Every Man for Himself<\/em>, about the 1912 Titanic disaster, for which Bainbridge won the\u00a01996 Whitbread Awards\u00a0prize for best novel, and\u00a0Master Georgie<\/em>, set during the\u00a0Crimean War, for which she won the 1998\u00a0James Tait Black Memorial Prize\u00a0for fiction. Her final novel,\u00a0According to Queeney<\/em>, is a fictionalized account of the last years of the life of\u00a0Samuel Johnson\u00a0as seen through the eyes of\u00a0Queeney Thrale, eldest daughter of\u00a0Henry\u00a0and\u00a0Hester Thrale.\n\nBainbridge died in 2010.\n

Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie<\/h1>\n
Published 1985<\/div>\nYou can read the full text here: \"Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie\" by Beryl Bainbridge [PDF]<\/a>.\n

Activities<\/h1>\n
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Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie<\/p>\n\n<\/header>\n

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Study Questions<\/h2>\n
    \n \t
  1. Define \u201cpantomime\u201d as it applies to British theatre.<\/li>\n \t
  2. How does Alec treat his father?<\/li>\n \t
  3. Why does Mrs. Henderson tell her husband he isn\u2019t going to the theatre?<\/li>\n \t
  4. Why do you think Charlie got angry with Alec about the treatment of Wayne?<\/li>\n \t
  5. Did Alec deliberately drive the car at Charlie?<\/li>\n \t
  6. List a few British words or phrases that sent you looking for definitions<\/li>\n \t
  7. What happens to Charlie at the end of the story?<\/li>\n \t
  8. What is the significance of the title?<\/li>\n \t
  9. For the title, is Bainbridge referencing the 1925 song with the same title, written by lyricist Billy Rose (1899\u20131966) and recorded in a 1961 album by American jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald (1917\u20131996)?<\/li>\n \t
  10. List some elements of \u201cblack comedy\u201d that are featured in the story. Start with the Wikipedia article, which gives a definition and a broad overview of black comedy.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Activities<\/h2>\n
      \n \t
    1. If you are unfamiliar with the plot of J.M. Barrie\u2019s play Peter Pan<\/em>, it might be useful to read the brief Wikipedia article on Peter Pan<\/em><\/a>.<\/li>\n \t
    2. Look at this very short trailer for a recent \u201cpanto\u201d Peter Pan<\/em><\/a>.<\/li>\n \t
    3. Listen to the MP3 audio of \"Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie\"<\/a>, read in appropriate British dialect. Eac\u2013h of the audio downloads is quite short.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

      Text Attributions<\/h3>\n