Seaton Novels

An existential saga of working-class life in a British factory town and military service in the torrid jungles of the Far East from award-winning, bestselling author Alan Sillitoe Key to the Door turns away from the boisterous pursuits of Arthur Seaton made infamous in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, and focuses instead on the quieter rebellions of his older brother, Brian. Brian's childhood and adolescence in the grimy streets of Nottingham are shaped by the Depression-era struggles of his family, the life and culture of the factory town, and the love and bullying of his iron-willed grandfather and erratic father. When Brian reaches adulthood, he frequents the local pubs, works hard at a cardboard factory, and runs into a sticky situation with a woman named Pauline that obliges him to marry her. Soon though, he is conscripted for the postwar occupation of Malaya, and his true colors begin to show. Brian declares that he only wears his uniform to collect his paycheck; he shows contempt for the soldiers who obey the rules; he pursues a relationship with an exotic Chinese dancer; and he sends poetry into the jungle in Morse code. At once a vivid family portrait and a study of "the desolate, companionless void of protest" prevalent in postwar England, Key to the Door establishes the Seaton Novels as a broad and sweeping saga of twentieth-century British life, set against the backdrop of Nottingham. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alan Sillitoe including rare images from the author's estate.

The long-anticipated sequel to Alan Sillitoe's bestselling classic 1950s novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. Arthur and Brian Seaton are heading back to their hometown, Nottingham, some forty-odd years after the close of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. The brothers plan to surprise Brian's first love, Jenny Tuxford, on her seventieth birthday. Arthur, the notorious lothario, still has some of his old spark, but it has been hampered by domestic life and his wife's recent cancer diagnosis. Meanwhile, Brian, now a failed novelist but successful television writer living in London, is struggling with dissatisfaction and emotional regrets. He and Jenny had fooled around in their teenage years-a lot of heavy petting through complicated clothing on her parents' settee-but Jenny ended up marrying someone else. Now that Jenny's husband has passed away, will sparks fly between her and Brian again? It is clear that the Nottingham of their youth no longer exists. The trams are now buses; the collieries and ironmongers have been replaced by cell phone shops and halal grocers; new high-rise apartments have sprung up; and the idle young hang around the city pubs whining about the dole. Where Saturday Night and Sunday Morning portrayed the chaotic energy of youth, Birthday is an investigation of the other end of the spectrum: the contemplation of missed chances and terminal decline, and the awareness that "death's blackout could descend at any minute." This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alan Sillitoe including rare images from the author's estate.

Alan Sillitoe's bestselling debut novel about debauchery, infidelity... and the morning after Arthur Seaton, a ladies' man and factory-worker extraordinaire, has just downed seven gins and eleven pints at his local pub. Thoroughly smashed, he proceeds to tumble down an entire flight of stairs, pass out, and wake up again only to vomit on a middle-aged couple. Luckily Arthur's lover, Brenda-a married woman with two kids-lets Arthur escape to her bed. Such are Saturdays in this bachelor's life. When Arthur is not romancing Brenda, evading her husband, or drinking himself silly, he is turning up his nose at authority, disparaging the army, and trying to avoid paying too much income tax. Moreover, Arthur's rapscallion ways soon lead him into the bed of Brenda's younger sister-who is also married. But no matter how much fun there is to be had, every Saturday night has its Sunday morning, replete with hangovers and consequences: A local bigmouth starts gossiping about Arthur's affairs, Brenda gets pregnant, the husbands find out what's been going on, and Arthur suffers a terrible beating. Perhaps the time has come for this playboy to settle down and marry that third woman he has been seeing on the side... One of the first books to sell over a million copies in the UK when it was released in paperback, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning has since become a key literary reference of postwar British culture and society, as well as a classic British New Wave film. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alan Sillitoe including rare images from the author's estate.