380 14 · BEGINNING AGAIN: 1955–80
Events and publications 1955–
Events Publications
1955 Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot; Brendan Behan, The
Quare Fellow; William Golding, The Inheritors; Philip Larkin,
The Less Deceived; William Empson, Collected Poems
1956 President Nasser of Egypt nationalizes the Suez 1956 Rebecca West, The Fountain Overflows; John Osborne,
Canal. Israel attacks Egypt. Britain and France Look Back in Anger; Angus Wilson,Anglo-Saxon
send troops, but the US imposes a ceasefire. Attitudes. (Eugene O’Neill, Long Day’s Journey into Night)
Russia invades Hungary
1957 Harold Macmillan (Conservative) becomes 1957 Evelyn Waugh, The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold; Lawrence
Prime Minister Durrell, Bitter Lemons, Justine; Ted Hughes, The Hawk in
the Rain; Stevie Smith,Not Waving but Drowning; Thom
Gunn, The Sense of Movement(Boris Pasternak, Dr
Zhivago)
1958 Charles de Gaulle President of France 1958 Brendan Behan, The Hostage; Harold Pinter, The Birthday
Party; Iris Murdoch,The Bell; T. H. White,The Once and
Future King; Samuel Beckett,Endgame, Krapp’s Last Tape;
Alan Sillitoe,Saturday Night and Sunday Morning; John
Betjeman, Collected Poems. (Giuseppe di Lampedusa, The
Leopard)
1959 John Arden, Serjeant Musgrave’s Dance; Muriel Spark,
Memento Mori; Geoffrey Hill, For the Unfallen
1960 Macmillan’s ‘Wind of Change’ speech: African colonies 1960 John Betjeman, Summoned by Bells; Philip Larkin, The
to be independent Whitsun Weddings; Harold Pinter,The Caretaker; D. H.
Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover; Olivia Manning, The
Balkan Trilogy (to 1965)
1961 The New English Bible; Richard Hughes, The Fox in the
Attic; V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr Biswas; Muriel Spark,
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie; Evelyn Waugh,
Unconditional Surrender; John Osborne,Luther; Thom
Gunn, My Sad Captains
1962 Immigration from black Commonwealth restricted. 1962 Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange; Doris Lessing, The
Second Vatican Council of the Catholic Church Golden Notebook; A. Alvarez (ed.), The New Poetry;
(to 1968) Samuel Beckett, Happy Days
1963 Alec Douglas-Home (Conservative) becomes 1963 Anthony Burgess, Inside Mr Enderby; John le Carré, The
Prime Minister Spy Who Came in from the Cold; Sylvia Plath,The Bell Jar
1964 Harold Wilson (Labour) becomes Prime Minister 1964 Joe Orton, Entertaining Mr Sloane; Keith Douglas, Selected
Poems
1965 Sylvia Plath, Ariel; John Heath-Stubbs, Selected Poems;
Robert Graves, Collected Poems; Harold Pinter, The
Homecoming; N. F. Simpson,The Cresta Run
1966 Adult homosexual acts decriminalized 1966 Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea; W. H. Auden, Collected
Shorter Poems; Seamus Heaney, Death of a Naturalist;
Paul Scott, The Jewel in the Crown (vol. 1 of The Raj
Quartet, 1975)
1967 Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead;
Elizabeth Jennings, Collected Poems
1968 Student riots in Paris 1968 Bryan Moore, I am Mary Dunne; Victor S. Pritchett, A Cab
at the Door; Tom Stoppard, The Real Inspector Hound;
Basil Bunting, Collected Poems
1969– Northern Irish ‘Troubles’ 1969 John Fowles, The French Lieutenant’s Woman; Douglas
Dunn, Terry Street
1970 Edward Heath (Conservative) becomes Prime Minister 1970 E. M. Forster, Maurice; Ted Hughes, Crow