Beryl Bainbridge at her darkly comic best with a new introduction by Amanda Craig, The Bottle Factory Outing is being reissued as one of five titles celebrating Abacus's 50th anniversary.

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize and named 'one of the greatest novels of all time' by the Observer, this riveting novel shows Beryl Bainbridge at her darkly comic best

Freda and Brenda are friends spending their days in an Italian-run wine-bottling factory in North London. When a works outing materialises it offers promise for Freda, but terror for Brenda. Unexpected passions run high on the chilly day of liberty and their lives are never the same again. Beryl Bainbridge dazzles readers in this offbeat, haunting yet hilarious novel.