BOOK DETAILS
Trade paper ISBN-13: 978-1941147252 List Price: $14.99 U.S. Pages: 118 Published: 2014 |
Saturday Night at the Greyhound (1931)
John Hampson With a new introduction by Helen Southworth Book Description
The sinister and scheming Mrs. Tapin has seen fourteen landlords come and go at the Greyhound, an old pub located in a Derbyshire mining village, and she has no doubt that the new owners, Ivy Flack, her gay brother Tom, and her drunken, philandering husband Fred, will soon be the next to fail. Pushed to the edge of ruin by Fred’s gambling, the free drinks he gives away to customers, and the money he lavishes on his mistress, Ivy and Tom know that Saturday, the busiest night of the week, is their last hope to earn enough money to keep the pub open. But as the Greyhound opens for business that fateful Saturday night, none of them are prepared for what will ensue, as events unfold in a crescendo of violence and tragedy that will lead to a climax both bizarre and inevitable. Widely acclaimed on its initial publication and running into three printings in its first week, Saturday Night at the Greyhound (1931) was a smash success for John Hampson (1901-1955) and his publishers Leonard and Virginia Woolf, who had rejected Hampson’s earlier work for its undisguised homosexual content. Dedicated to Hampson’s friend and mentor Forrest Reid and long recognized as a classic, Saturday Night at the Greyhound returns to print for the first time in 25 years in this new edition, which features a reproduction of the original jacket art and a new introduction by Helen Southworth. |
reviews
“A book I greatly admire.” – Graham Greene
“One of the most interesting first novels I have read for some time. Short and dramatic, and written with a fine simplicity. I could not put it down until I knew all that was to happen that Saturday night.” – Sunday Times
“A first novel of outstanding merit . . . In Mr. Hampson we have a new writer of strong and wholly original talent.” – Harold Nicolson, Daily Express
“A masterpiece of character drawing.” – Daily Sketch
“One of the most interesting first novels I have read for some time. Short and dramatic, and written with a fine simplicity. I could not put it down until I knew all that was to happen that Saturday night.” – Sunday Times
“A first novel of outstanding merit . . . In Mr. Hampson we have a new writer of strong and wholly original talent.” – Harold Nicolson, Daily Express
“A masterpiece of character drawing.” – Daily Sketch
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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
John Hampson Simpson was born in Birmingham in 1901, the fifth of eight children. Hampson’s childhood was a difficult one: the collapse of his father’s business reduced the family to near poverty, and his own weak health prevented him from attending school and receiving a formal education. After the First World War, young Hampson worked at a variety of jobs, including as a waiter at a London hotel and assisting at his sister’s pub, both of which experiences he draws on in Saturday Night at the Greyhound.
In 1925, Hampson obtained a post as tutor to a mentally disabled boy, and the relative stability of the job allowed him to take up writing in his free time. Virginia Woolf believed Hampson’s first novel, Go Seek a Stranger, to be his best, but it was rejected for publication because of its frank homosexual content and remains unpublished. Instead, in February 1931, Woolf and her husband Leonard’s Hogarth Press issued Saturday Night at the Greyhound, which was a surprise hit, being declared a bestseller by the Observer two days after publication and running into three printings in eight days. It was quickly translated into French and in 1937 became one of the first successful Penguin paperbacks. Though revived for 1950 and 1986 reprints, Hampson’s best-known novel has been out of print for many years and has fallen somewhat into obscurity.
Hampson’s later novels, though respectfully reviewed, were less successful commercially. These included O Providence (1932), another Hogarth release, and a trio of novels published by Heinemann, of which Strip Jack Naked (1934) is perhaps the best known. In the 1930s, Hampson was a leading figure in the “Birmingham Group”, which also included Walter Allen and Leslie Halward, and he counted Forrest Reid, Graham Greene, and W. H. Auden among his literary friends. Hampson’s final novel A Bag of Stones (1952), a psychological study of how a boy’s horrific childhood leads to the murder of his father, was well reviewed and was championed by the influential publisher John Lehmann. Hampson died in 1955.
In 1925, Hampson obtained a post as tutor to a mentally disabled boy, and the relative stability of the job allowed him to take up writing in his free time. Virginia Woolf believed Hampson’s first novel, Go Seek a Stranger, to be his best, but it was rejected for publication because of its frank homosexual content and remains unpublished. Instead, in February 1931, Woolf and her husband Leonard’s Hogarth Press issued Saturday Night at the Greyhound, which was a surprise hit, being declared a bestseller by the Observer two days after publication and running into three printings in eight days. It was quickly translated into French and in 1937 became one of the first successful Penguin paperbacks. Though revived for 1950 and 1986 reprints, Hampson’s best-known novel has been out of print for many years and has fallen somewhat into obscurity.
Hampson’s later novels, though respectfully reviewed, were less successful commercially. These included O Providence (1932), another Hogarth release, and a trio of novels published by Heinemann, of which Strip Jack Naked (1934) is perhaps the best known. In the 1930s, Hampson was a leading figure in the “Birmingham Group”, which also included Walter Allen and Leslie Halward, and he counted Forrest Reid, Graham Greene, and W. H. Auden among his literary friends. Hampson’s final novel A Bag of Stones (1952), a psychological study of how a boy’s horrific childhood leads to the murder of his father, was well reviewed and was championed by the influential publisher John Lehmann. Hampson died in 1955.