Routledge The Routledge Guide to Modern English Writing: Britain and Ireland

In 1963 President John F. Kennedy was shot, Sylvia Plath published The Bell Jar, and the Beatles were in their prime. This was a changing world, which British and Irish writers both contributed to and reflected in drama, poetry and prose.The Routledge Guide to Modern English Writing tells the story of British and Irish writing from 1963 to the present. From the first performance of Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in the 1960s to lad novels and Chick Lit in the twenty-first century, the authors guide the reader through the major writers, genres and developments in English writing over the past forty years. Providing an in-depth overview of the main genres and extensive treatment of a wide range of writers including Philip Larkin, Ted Hughes, Angela Carter, Benjamin Zephaniah and Nick Hornby, this highly readable handbook also offers notes on language issues, quotations from selected works, a timeline and a guide to other works.Written by the authors of The Routledge History of Literature in English (second edition, 2001), The Routledge Guide to Modern English Writing is essential reading for all readers of contemporary writing. Review "Anyone who wants a map of what is happening in English writing will surely find this book invaluable. The authors have done a terrific job in mapping out a very complex, rapidly-changing field." -Susan Bassnett, University of Warwick "Carter and McRae have done for the world of contemporary British writing what the "Lonely Planet guides did for world travel. They offer us an insider's concise but comprehensive account of the terrain, mapping relations between landmarks, pausing over unremarked or unnoticed sites of interest, and - above all - giving the reader-traveller sufficient coordinates and equipment to undertake their own journeys of imagination, criticism and discovery." -Sean Matthews, University of East Anglia "This is that rare and admirable thing: a critical work that is both comprehensive and insightful, yet fresh, accessible and clear. It should be a valuable resource for students, journalists, authors - anyone, in fact, with an interest in literature and language in Britain today." -Sarah Waters, author of "Tipping the Velvet, Affinity and Fingersmith