Angus Wilson, A Bit Off the Map

Marina MacKay (University of Durham)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Kerry Myler (Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1957

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Story Collection

Resources

The characters in Wilson's third collection of stories are struggling to find their place on England's post-war map. Kennie, the protagonist of the title story, is a mentally subnormal teddy boy who drifts around cafes, infatuated with an untalented, artistic crowd who are themselves attempting to tap into the cultural zeitgeist with their angry, blustering fiction. After a party at the home of a second-rate literary lioness, simple Kennie walks alone across Hampstead Heath, where he meets Colonel Lambourn, who claims to have access to “The Truth.“ Initially, Kennie does not realise that the old man is less than sane, and he listens eagerly to his account of a conspiracy. Finally coming to the conclusion that he is being …

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

508 words

Citation: MacKay, Marina. "A Bit Off the Map". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 January 2001 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7265, accessed 25 November 2024.]

Save this article