The Glittering Prizes

First edition, first impression. Some edge wear to top and bottom of jacket and spine, a couple of short closed tears to bottom of back jacket, some slight yellowing to white parts of jacket, corners slightly bruised, price clipped, gift inscription to half title page, internally clean, tight and almost square, overall a vg+ copy for its age. 297pp. Frederic Raphael's witty, brilliant novel, written alongside the hit TV series first broadcast in 1976, starring Tom Conti, Barbara Kellermann, Leonard Sachs et al, to huge acclaim. It is a classic of post war British fiction. Following the fortunes of an elite group of students at Cambridge University in the 1950s, and then out into the world, the story perfectly captures the zeitgeist of an era. A gifted, grammar school/scholarship generation sweeps away the old rules of class and empire and make their careers in the media, law, politics and academe, forming the meritocracy that would come to govern the British establishment. Adam Morris is the scholarship boy who finds friends and lovers in a tight knit circle that includes Alan Parks, Mike Clode, Anna Cunningham, Barbara Ransome, and Bill Bourne. They are all brilliant, but on leaving the gilded world of Cambridge only some win the glittering prizes of real life. To Raphael, however, worldly success is not the only measure of happiness. A vein of disillusion and sadness runs through the narrative, beneath all the sparkling badinage. And through Adam, Raphael explores unresolved issues of anti Semitism buried deep in British society, while the sad fate of his roommate and friend Donald hints at the unravelling grip of the old aristocracy. Frederic Raphael was already a successful screenwriter when the TV series was commissioned, having won an Oscar for the movie 'Darling', starring Julie Christie. 'The Glittering Prizes' stands on its own as a nuanced and beautifully written novel, gripping today for its portrayal of a generation, and of a fascinating era of change in British culture. Raphael followed the fortunes of the group with two sequels 'Fame and Fortune' in 2007 and 'Final Demands' in 2010, both of which created much speculation in the media world over the real identity of some of his characters. Very scarce in this first impression.