Explores the trailblazing work of the British literary avant-garde of the 1960s This collection showcases the liveliness of British avant-garde fiction of the 1960s, which is diverse in its aesthetic practices and (sometimes) divided in its politics. It brings together a selection of original, research-led essays on more than a dozen avant-garde British writers of the decade, revealing this to be a crucial - and crucially overlooked - period of British literary history. Via detailed readings of authors such as Ann Quin, B. S. Johnson, Alexander Trocchi, Maureen Duffy, Alan Burns, Christine Brooke-Rose and many others, the contributors reveal the diversity of material produced in this period and trace the complex relations of influence and indebtedness between the 60s avant-garde, earlier modernisms and later postmodern writing. The volume shows that this decade is an even more vibrant period of literary experiment in Britain than might previously have been supposed - and that the avant-garde fiction produced then rewards our renewed attention to it. Kaye Mitchell is Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Literature at the University of Manchester. Nonia Williams is Lecturer in English Literature at the University of East Anglia. Cover image: Untitled © Ron Sandford Cover design: [EUP logo] edinburghuniversitypress.com Note: these ISBNs are different from the original brief. ISBN 978-1-4744-3619-9 [PPC] ISBN 978-1-4744-3620-5 [cover] Barcode