born April 13, 1922, Bradford, Yorkshire,
Eng. died Oct. 28, 1987, London
British novelist, one of the so-called Angry
Young Men, whose Room at the Top (1957; film
1958) typifies the concerns of a generation
of post-World War II British writers.
Braine attended St. Bede’s Grammar School in
Bradford and the Leeds School of
Librarianship and was working as a librarian
in the West Riding of Yorkshire when Room at
the Top appeared. Its protagonist, a young
working-class man, traps himself into an
unhappy marriage with the daughter of a
wealthy businessman. None of his later
novels approached it in critical or popular
success. Waiting for Sheila (1976) was
adapted for television (1977), as was Stay
With Me Till Morning (1970; adapted for
television, 1980).
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