At the end of the 1950s, a debonair and well-dressed Malcolm Bradbury returned from a year in the United States, slightly shattered but not quite broken, to a Britain that had thoroughly changed. Commercial television had started, the bee-hive hairdo was in, and there were supermarkets instead of grocer's shops. In this piece of vintage Bradbury, the author of The History Man takes on Consumer Society and the British character as only he can. 'He restores belief in the power of laughter' Harpers & Queen 'A master not only of language and comedy but of feeling too' Sunday Times