Take a lesson from it then. It could happen to you. When I go I shall have my family about me – daughters – sons – my husband, grey and distinguished, dabbing a handkerchief to his lips . . .’ It's been about three weeks since I finished Beryl Bainbridge's The Bottle Factory Outing. In that time I've read and reviewed other books. But I've been putting off writing a review of this book because I just didn't know what to make of it. It's an odd book, and as I mentioned before, it's about a very odd couple! I don’t think the era of the book is directly named, but it seems like the 60s or early 70s. Freda and Brenda are modern women of a sort; Brenda has run away from her hard-drinking, middle-class farming husband, and Freda has no relations other than an elderly and judgemental aunt. They rely on themselves, and to some extent on each other - although they each display contempt for the other’s eccentricities and shortcomings. Neither can afford to live alone, yet their bedsit (and shared bed) cannot comfortably accommodate them both. Beryl Bainbridge made it to the Man Booker prize shortlist a record five times but never succeeded in winning the award. The Bottle Factory Outing, her fourth novel was one of the shortlisted titles in 1974 but was beaten to the prize by Stanley Middleton's Holiday.

Take a lesson from it then. It could happen to you. When I go I shall have my family about me – daughters – sons – my husband, grey and distinguished, dabbing a handkerchief to his lips…’ Bainbridge's story is set in a small Italian-run factory somewhere in London which bottles wines and some spirits. Freda and Brenda are two members of the workforce , working alongside some middle aged Italians who clean and label the bottles for despatch. The pair share a workbench by day and a miserable bedsit room by night. They also share a bed though they build a wall of books to ensure there is a clear demarkation of space on the mattress.Two very complex, funny female characters. They need each other although they would never admit it’ Maxine Peake Having established her characters, Bainbridge brings them all together for a ridiculous and ultimately tragic day out in the country. It’s supposed to be a treat - a picnic, a day away, a sort of team-building outing - but again those words come to mind: absurd and squalid. Freda plans a seduction and Brenda hopes to avoid one, but the day unravels into something out of everyone’s control. Ostensibly, The Bottle Factory Outing focuses on two mismatched young women, Brenda and Freda, who share a shabby bedsit while also working together at a local wine bottling factory. While Brenda is mousey and pessimistic, Freda is loud and outgoing, forever dreaming about the life she would like to be living – preferably that of a successful actress surrounded by friends and family. I felt this novel was a good example of that. I found it hard to lose myself in the book because of a prevailing sense of disconnection that permeated the reading of it. On the flip side, it's very well written (despite the tremendous overuse of adverbs), and Bainbridge was obviously pushing some buttons at the time with her talent. One thing I found eye-opening in the novel was the abysmal treatment of women in the workplace in the 70s. The daily sexual/physical harassment suffered by female employees at the hands of the their male counterparts and superiors will make you shake your head in dismay. It's a decent little story, as well as a window into a world we would barely recognize today.

Harry Blamires likens Freda's romantic dreams to those of Joyce's Gerty MacDowell in Ulysses and he concludes "Beryl Bainbridge manages plots of escalating comedy and grotesqueness with consummate skill. She is brilliant at scattering humour over seemingly gruesome terrain". [6] Despite occasional moments of effective comedy, "The Bottle Factory Outing" is an uninteresting story whose plot is ludicrously unrealistic. The writing style is dull and uneven and the characterisation is largely unconvincing. I simply could not believe that two individuals like Brenda and Freda would ever be friends with each other, let alone share a bedsit - and even a double bed (albeit with a protective barrier of books and bolsters to ensure the preservation of each other's private space). The actions of several other characters also seem highly improbable. These include a visit from Brenda's gun-toting mother-in-law and the disposal of a dead body in what can only be described as a most ridiculous manner. There are occasions too when the dialogue is unconvincing. At one point, Freda says the following words to Brenda: "You are not flotsam washed up on the shore, without recourse to the sea"! It is simply not credible that, given what we know of her character, Freda would speak in that way. I am afraid I simply could not believe the astonishingly grotesque conclusion of the story or the actions of the individuals involved. And I really didn't care about most of the major characters. Patiently Freda explained that it wasn’t a bottle factory, it was a wine factory – that they would be working alongside simple peasants who had culture and tradition behind them. Brenda hinted she didn’t like foreigners – she found them difficult to get on with. Freda said it proved how puny a person she was, in mind and in body.New improvements have been sensitively considered; only selecting components that maintain the same industrial aesthetic and support the original details. Fabric improvements have been approached with the key principles of building conservation -– using materials and methods to match the existing. Any new materials or techniques were used sparingly to improve safety or prolong the life of the building.

Beryl Bainbridge talks about her inspiration for The Bottle Factory Outing, one of her most renowned titles. First broadcast in The Book Programme on BBC2, 15 June 1976. Our 300ml sports bottle is very popular with young children due to its weight and size. This makes it an ideal choice for junior schools and nurseries.

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She didn’t look as if she’d had a full life,’ said Brenda. ‘She only had the cat. There weren’t any mourners – no sons or anything.’

Freda is a girl with dreams. She comes up with a plan for the entire team to take off for a day out in country. It will, she hopes, give her the opportunity to capture the heart of the manager, Vittorio. Brenda has more pressing concerns - how to avoid the amorous intentions of her fellow worker, the lecherous Rossi. The story line revolves around an outing that Freda has engineered in an effort to spend more time with Vittorio. Brenda wants no part of the outing or Freda's plan but the ever optimistic and slightly bullying Freda lives by the following philosophy: However, it's the relationship between Freda and Brenda that is the heart and soul of the book. But I hesitate to call it a friendship - it reads and feels more like a kind of social and emotional marriage of convenience than a friendship. And from the outset, the odd feel to the book is rooted in this slightly bizarre pair. Their first meeting is odd - Freda virtually force-feeding Brenda into being adopted/taken under Freda's wing(not a terribly cosy or safe place to be!!), after a chance encounter in a shop as Brenda flees from a disastrous marriage, a seriously mad mother-in-law and a husband who is the village 'soak' essentially! The oddness is maintained in their everyday lives - for example, separated at night in the bed they share by a bolster of books of all things!