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The Crying Game
“My new life began when my cousin Adam Keelby came into the Salisbury one muggy September evening."
Frank Batcombe, an ambitious young reporter, has come down from Yorkshire to work on a tabloid newspaper in London’s Fleet Street. It is some time towards the tail end of the swinging sixties. He gets digs at the rundown end of the Kings Road and begins a desultory liaison with clever Theresa, who works on the woman’s page of the same paper. But, just finding his feet in the city, Frank is unwilling to commit.
Things look up when he runs into his stylish cousin Adam, a PR man, who lives in a smart flat in Hampstead and knows all the right people. Adam throws decadent bachelor parties, attended by models, debs, a gay photographer and lecherous MPs. When Frank’s editor puts him to work digging the dirt on an affair between a supposedly upright Labour politician and an attractive novelist these two worlds collide. Adam persuades Frank to move into the Hampstead flat, Theresa is ditched for louche Angela, a trust funded artist, and Frank seems set to make it in London’s media scene. But he soon finds that this hard living world can take it’s toll…
Now something of a classic, The Crying Game absolutely captures the sexy, brutal world of young men on the make in London, and the girls they exploit. But in the end John Braine also conveys a deeper sense of what is left, once the game is over.
‘…a remarkably prescient and well-written piece of fiction’ – Dan Atkinson, Lion & Unicorn
‘Braine is a fine writer. A fine writer, moreover, of the old school, with a perfect grasp of the English language … and a sure stylistic touch’ - Pursewarden blog
'A cautionary tale of swinging London... a kinky, mod, kaleidoscope scene of bright-plumed 'birds' and opportunistic bastards who will do anything to get ahead... Shocks and hypnotises at the same time' – New York Times
‘This is John Braine’s best novel since Room at the Top , with his savage talent for the exposure of society ripping along like a flood tide’ – Irish Times
‘'Set in the neurotic, erotic world of nastier journalism, promiscuous public relations, the expense account... girls of no virtue at all are taken by gentlemen of ever ready capacity, wine is drunk like water... a highly spiced confection’ – Illustrated London News
‘John Braine’s most enjoyable, perceptive and with-it novel to date’ – Manchester Evening News
John Braine was born in Bradford, in the north of England, in 1922. He was educated at St Bede’s Grammar School but left aged sixteen. After working in various jobs he became a librarian in Bingley, a small northern town close to where he grew up. The great success of his first novel Room at the Top enabled him to move south and become a full time writer, and he was at the centre of a literary movement in post-war Britain dubbed the Angry Young Men, or the Northern Wave. He published several more novels, including Waiting for Sheila and The Crying Game . He was married to Helen Wood and had four children. He died in 1986 aged sixty four.
Frank Batcombe, an ambitious young reporter, has come down from Yorkshire to work on a tabloid newspaper in London’s Fleet Street. It is some time towards the tail end of the swinging sixties. He gets digs at the rundown end of the Kings Road and begins a desultory liaison with clever Theresa, who works on the woman’s page of the same paper. But, just finding his feet in the city, Frank is unwilling to commit.
Things look up when he runs into his stylish cousin Adam, a PR man, who lives in a smart flat in Hampstead and knows all the right people. Adam throws decadent bachelor parties, attended by models, debs, a gay photographer and lecherous MPs. When Frank’s editor puts him to work digging the dirt on an affair between a supposedly upright Labour politician and an attractive novelist these two worlds collide. Adam persuades Frank to move into the Hampstead flat, Theresa is ditched for louche Angela, a trust funded artist, and Frank seems set to make it in London’s media scene. But he soon finds that this hard living world can take it’s toll…
Now something of a classic, The Crying Game absolutely captures the sexy, brutal world of young men on the make in London, and the girls they exploit. But in the end John Braine also conveys a deeper sense of what is left, once the game is over.
‘…a remarkably prescient and well-written piece of fiction’ – Dan Atkinson, Lion & Unicorn
‘Braine is a fine writer. A fine writer, moreover, of the old school, with a perfect grasp of the English language … and a sure stylistic touch’ - Pursewarden blog
'A cautionary tale of swinging London... a kinky, mod, kaleidoscope scene of bright-plumed 'birds' and opportunistic bastards who will do anything to get ahead... Shocks and hypnotises at the same time' – New York Times
‘This is John Braine’s best novel since Room at the Top , with his savage talent for the exposure of society ripping along like a flood tide’ – Irish Times
‘'Set in the neurotic, erotic world of nastier journalism, promiscuous public relations, the expense account... girls of no virtue at all are taken by gentlemen of ever ready capacity, wine is drunk like water... a highly spiced confection’ – Illustrated London News
‘John Braine’s most enjoyable, perceptive and with-it novel to date’ – Manchester Evening News
John Braine was born in Bradford, in the north of England, in 1922. He was educated at St Bede’s Grammar School but left aged sixteen. After working in various jobs he became a librarian in Bingley, a small northern town close to where he grew up. The great success of his first novel Room at the Top enabled him to move south and become a full time writer, and he was at the centre of a literary movement in post-war Britain dubbed the Angry Young Men, or the Northern Wave. He published several more novels, including Waiting for Sheila and The Crying Game . He was married to Helen Wood and had four children. He died in 1986 aged sixty four.
- GenresFiction
275 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 4, 1970
About the author
John Braine
39 books40 followersJohn Gerard Braine was born in Bradford, Yorkshire in 1922. He sprang to immediate fame in 1957 with publication of his first novel, Room at the Top, which was a critical success and a major bestseller in England and America and was adapted for the screen in an Oscar-winning 1959 film starring Simone Signoret and Laurence Harvey. His second novel, The Vodi (1959), met with mixed reviews and a disappointing reception, but was Braine’s favourite of his own works. His next book, Life at the Top (1962), a sequel to Room at the Top, sold well and was filmed in 1965.
Braine, who was commonly associated with what the British media dubbed the ‘Angry Young Men’ movement of working-class writers disenchanted with the traditional British class system, continued writing until his death in 1986, though as of 2013, all his works were out of print. Recently, there has been renewed interest in Braine’s work, with Valancourt Books’ reissues of Room at the Top and The Vodi, and a 2012 BBC miniseries adaptation of Room at the Top.
Braine, who was commonly associated with what the British media dubbed the ‘Angry Young Men’ movement of working-class writers disenchanted with the traditional British class system, continued writing until his death in 1986, though as of 2013, all his works were out of print. Recently, there has been renewed interest in Braine’s work, with Valancourt Books’ reissues of Room at the Top and The Vodi, and a 2012 BBC miniseries adaptation of Room at the Top.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 27, 2012
In The Crying Game, Braine moves South to London, although the protaganist and his right hand man are Yorkshire ex-pats, so he's still on familiar territory. Frank is a young man trying to make his way in life, all the while enjoying a few drinks and a few women. Sounds familiar? Well, Braine's celebrated Room At The Top has certainly rubbed shoulders with The Crying Game. It's the same gritty kind of story, but perhaps Braine had read a few pages of The Great Gatsby while working on The Crying Game.
That was slightly unfair on Braine... Frank has moved to London to pursue a career in journalism when he bumps into his cousin. This meeting is destined to change Frank's life quite dramatically as his cousin introduces him to his own hedonistic world of parties, booze and available young women. Of course, living in such a way throws up its own problems as Frank discovers.
Anyone who enjoyed Room at the Top or who approves of Braine's gritty style will find much to like in The Crying Game. The first chapter does drag somewhat due to it being mainly dialogue, but mostly after that it moves along nicely for 40+ year old novel. It deserves more than 3 stars but not quite 4 stars so on that basis I'm going for the lower score.
That was slightly unfair on Braine... Frank has moved to London to pursue a career in journalism when he bumps into his cousin. This meeting is destined to change Frank's life quite dramatically as his cousin introduces him to his own hedonistic world of parties, booze and available young women. Of course, living in such a way throws up its own problems as Frank discovers.
Anyone who enjoyed Room at the Top or who approves of Braine's gritty style will find much to like in The Crying Game. The first chapter does drag somewhat due to it being mainly dialogue, but mostly after that it moves along nicely for 40+ year old novel. It deserves more than 3 stars but not quite 4 stars so on that basis I'm going for the lower score.
October 19, 2021
Wonderful writer, excellent story, very well written. A great "kitchen sink" tale. Third John Braine I have read, more to come.
June 26, 2025
A 1960s novel written in the 1960s by the Room at the Top author
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews