{"product_id":"9781961341920-an-awfully-big-adventure","title":"An Awfully Big Adventure","description":"\u003cmeta content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAgainst the grimy backdrop of the grey postwar city, a shabby, scandal-steeped repertory theatre company rehearses for their Christmas performance of Peter Pan.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA blackly comic story of the secrets, sex, and violence behind the curtain of a repertory theatre's postwar production of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePeter Pan\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e: its 'close observation and hilarity are underlain by a sense of tragedy as deep as any in fiction.' \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e(The Times)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLiverpool, 1950. Against the grimy backdrop of the grey postwar city, a shabby, scandal-steeped repertory theatre company rehearses for their Christmas performance of Peter Pan. Treading the boards for the first time is sixteen-year-old Stella Bradshaw, ambitious, idealistic, and still overwhelmingly innocent. She falls hard for the rakish, monocled director, Meredith Potter, but, unable to attract his attentions  and not understanding why he's spending quite so much time with their male colleagues  she turns to another colleague to initiate her into the ways of love. Enter the celebrated P. L. O'Hara, a dashing leading man who's nursing secrets of his own. When the curtain is up, fantastical entertainment abounds, but backstage a very different drama is playing out: a pitch-black comedy of indiscretion, intrigue, and eventual tragedy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShortlisted for the Booker Prize, and dusted with that magical 'air of Pinteresque menace and Sparkian malice [that] lingers around the margins of [all of Beryl Bainbridge's] fiction,' (Michiko Kakutani, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e), \u003ci\u003eAn Awfully Big Adventure\u003c\/i\u003e is one of the author's very best  and best-loved   novels.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rarewaves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":58212991009142,"sku":"9781961341920","price":14.26,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0092\/7504\/8033\/files\/orig_40123223.jpg?v=1783336623","url":"https:\/\/www.rarewaves.com\/products\/9781961341920-an-awfully-big-adventure","provider":"Rarewaves.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}