‘Fiction and Film as Both Record and Distortion'
- Event type
- Seminar
- Series
- History of Libraries
- Address
- Bloomsbury Room, G35, Ground Floor, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU
- Speakers
- Alistair Black (University of Illinois)
- Event dates
- Contact
- IESEvents@sas.ac.uk Email only
‘Fiction and Film as Both Record and Distortion: Kingsley Amis's Novel That Uncertain Feeling (1955), the Feature Film Only Two Can Play (1962) and the Post-War Public Library in Britain’
In 1962 Kingsley Amis's second novel That Uncertain Feeling, published in 1955, was turned into the comedy film Only Two Can Play, starring Peter Sellers as the Welsh public librarian Amis had created. Both book and film can be used to explore the history of the public library in post-war Britain by examining the extent to which they either serve as a true record and valuable primary source or represent a distortion of reality which in itself, ironically, can provide useful evidence of that history.
About the speaker:
Professor Alistair Black is Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and author of numerous books and articles on 19th and 20th century information and public library history.
Unless stated otherwise, all our events are free of charge and anyone interested in the topic is welcome to attend. Registration is required for all events.
