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Eating People is Wrong

Brief Description
Stuart Treece, a forty-year-old professor and head of English, now rather set in his ways (Hannibal Lecter is not on his syllabus), is made to feel somewhat alien by his encounters with a younger generation whose values are decidedly at odds with his own. In this... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
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Malcolm Bradbury’s first novel is a timeless and brilliant fiction about the clash of cultures and generations which has beset academia since it began.

Malcolm Bradbury's first novel is a timeless and brilliant fiction about the clash of cultures and generations which has beset academia since it began.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Stuart Treece, a forty-year-old professor and head of English, now rather set in his ways (Hannibal Lecter is not on his syllabus), is made to feel somewhat alien by his encounters with a younger generation whose values are decidedly at odds with his own.

In this witty tragi-comedy, the hero's attempts to come to terms with his new situation are hilariously undermined when he finds himself instead falling in love with one of his graduate students, and busily fending off a student rival.

Eating People is Wrong established Bradbury's ability to satirise the academic world and to create the campus novel, as with Stepping Westward and the prize-winning The History Man. Like its title, the book is funny, true and memorable.

Now part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the very best of modern literature.

'The funniest book I have read this year' - The Daily Telegraph

'It is both tough and sensitive, a brilliantly funny book and a really important first novel' - The Sunday Times

'A sobering, satirical brilliance' - The Times Literary Supplement

Series: Picador Collection

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  • The Crossing
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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781035091447

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 09 July 2026

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Picador

Contributors:

  • Cover design or artwork by Stuart Wilson

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 19.0mm

Width: 140.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 212g

Pages: 288

About the Author

Malcolm Bradbury was a well-known novelist, critic and academic. He co-founded the famous creative writing department at the University of East Anglia, whose students have included Ian McEwan and Kazuo Ishiguro. His novels are Eating People is Wrong; Stepping Westward; The History Man, which won the Royal Society of Literature Heinemann Prize; Rates of Exchange, shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Cuts; Doctor Criminale; and To the Hermitage. He wrote several works of non-fiction, humour and satire, including Who Do You Think You Are?, All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go and Why Come to Slaka?. He was an active journalist and a leading television writer, responsible for the adaptations of Porterhouse Blue, Cold Comfort Farm and many TV plays and episodes of Inspector Morse, A Touch of Frost, Kavanagh QC and Dalziel and Pascoe. He was awarded a knighthood in 2000 for services to literature and died later the same year.

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