A Kind of Loving

By Stan Barstow

'A major novelist' -- Punch

'Warmth, liveliness, honesty and compassion' -- The Sunday Times

Stan Barstow's landmark 'Brit-Lit' novel of the sixties immortalized Vic Brown, the amiable working class lad from the North and led the way for author's like Nick Hornby writing similar slice-of-life drama. Still as fresh and alive today, it spawned two sequels: The Watchers on the Shore (1966) and The Right True End (1976). First published in 1960, it has long been used as a set text in British schools. It has also been translated at various times into a film starring Alan Bates (1962) of the same name, a television series (1973) starring Clive Wood, a radio play and a stage play. A Kind of Loving was the first of a trilogy, published over the course of sixteen years, that followed hero Vic Brown through marriage, divorce and a move from the mining town of Cressley to London. This new edition includes an afterword by David Collard.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Parthian Books
• Release date: May 1, 2011
• ISBN: 9781906998776

Stan Barstow

Fiction writer and dramatist, Barstow was born in the West Riding of Yorkshire. He attended Ossett Grammar School, then began writing in the 1950s. Along with Alan Sillitoe, John Braine and Keth Waterhouse he is considered one of the pioneers of the 1960s school of northern literary realism. His first great success was the novel A Kind of Loving, which became a film directed by John Schlesinger and starring Alan Bates. Since then he has produced eleven novels and three books of short stories, many set in the fictional mining town of Cressley, as well as TV scripts and material for the radio and theatre. Other works include the novels Ask Me Tomorrow (1962), and Joby, which was turned into a television play starring Patrick Stewart. For the last ten years of his life he made his home in South Wales with the distinguished radio dramatist Diana Griffiths. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Fellow of the Welsh Academy and an Honorary Master of Arts of the Open University.

Reviews for A Kind of Loving

[adonisguilfoyle · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

There is a positive way of reviewing this iconic sixties novel - which has been used as a set text in schools! - and a negative, the latter summed up in two words: Vic Brown. Seriously, I love the sixties, and I am not one for whitewashing history ('Oh, that's so sexist/racist/generally inappropriate to my delicate modern sensibilities'), but Stan Barstow's narrator is a vowel-displaced twit. Is the reader supposed to care about him, or - God forbid - sympathise with his plight? 'O woe is me, I got my girlfriend pregnant because I was only using her for sex, and now I have to marry her and my life is over!' He is just thoroughly obnoxious, calling women 'bints' and spouting ignorant views left, right and centre ('It gives you kind of a shock to see people like him [a homeless man] about these days and you can only think it's their fault'). I know Vic is only twenty and raised in a northern town in the 1950s, but I seriously wanted to smack him and his thick wavy hair and good suits into next week.Which is also the positive aspect of this novel - unflinching honesty. Vic is not a hero, he's a git, and his unpleasantness is not fiction but reality. Poor trusting Ingrid and strong matriarchs like Mrs Brown and Mrs Rothwell are equally identifiable if unlikeable. And even Vic is 'not a bad lad', as his sister Chris insists - he respects his working class father while aiming to better himself, first with an engineering firm and then looking to take over the reins of a popular record shop, enjoys reading and hopes to find a loving relationship like his newly married sister. He just spouts a load of tripe and adopts a truly condescending attitude to women - when he finally gets what he wants from typist Ingrid, he treats her like trash. Ugh, men!A Kind of Loving is actually the first of a trilogy, which might explain why we never find out about Mr Hassop's home life - but I really, really don't want to spend any more time with Vic.

[tedrick_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A REAL UP NORTH DRAMA I READ IT YEARS AGO SO i'M RUSTY

[starbox_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Oh it's a great life and we've only another thirty or forty years of it to come"By sally tarbox on 31 December 2017Format: Kindle EditionFirst published in 1960, this is a tale of a distant era; Yorkshire miner's son Vic Brown is going places, with a job as a draughtsman, a supportive family and enough money to enjoy himself. Despite his laddish behaviour, he's an intelligent guy; and when he takes up with pretty but vacuous Ingrid, he soon realises her limitations.But love and lust become confused, and soon Ingrid has some unwelcome news for her reluctant boyfriend...While others have commented negatively about Vic as a person, I found I felt some sympathy for his plight, forced into marriage with someone he has nothing in common with. As a narrator, he really comes alive with his frank Yorkshire dialogue.Last read when I was in my teens - now 40 years later, it's still a great read.

[shanaqui_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I decided that, for September, I'm going to read (at least) one book for each letter of the alphabet, by author surname. So A Kind of Loving is 'B' (I'm not doing it in order). Mum read it a while ago and gave it to me. It's published by Parthian press, which usually means Welsh fiction, but actually this is from the place where I grew up -- Stan Barstow was born a stone's throw from where I spent my teens. He renders the place well, though most of the focus is on the relationship at the story's centre.

Mostly, it's about a guy -- the narrator -- who likes a girl, thinks he loves her, and though it turns out that he doesn't, he still 'has' to do the decent thing and marry her. The social pressures and so on of the time are explored a bit, and family/social class problems.

Nothing revolutionary, but well enough told.

[glorybe1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I bought this book because I remember reading it at school so many years ago I almost hate to admit it!! It took me right back to the days of growing up in the 60's very nostalgic!! It tells the story of Vic a young Yorkshire lad, son of a Yorkshire miner growing to manhood and trying to make his way in the world, but not quite knowing how to get there. He is caught up in the times when you had to make an honest woman of your girl, which is what he does when his girlfriend Ingrid becomes pregnant.On the face of it Vic is a right jack the lad who wants to taste life and sow his wild oats without any complications, but the reader is aware that Vic really is good, honest young man with dreams and aspirations that evey young lad has. The tough decisions that he and Ingrid have to make that could make of break them, are ones that thousands of young people went through before contraception and the less severe moral codes of today. A really good story with lovely yorkshire isms throughout!!