For admirers of Bryher's recreations of the past, *Beowulf* will become an added and interestingly varied source of enthusiasm. In a novel whose setting is London during the Elits, and whose characters are the common people in crisis, Bryher proves herself as masterful a narrator of recent history as she is of Roman frontiers, the age of Hastings, or the Jacobean twilight. Compassion and humor mingle in this beautifully wrought story of an urban neighborhood whose hearth is in the teashop where their lives converge. The book's title, as well as its human overtones, comes from the teashop's mascot, a plaster bulldog named for the heroic figure of the Anglo-Saxon epic of hardihood and valor.

*Beowulf* is England's story during World War II, and it is unmatched in contemporary fiction as a rendering of the civilian involvement in total war, which made a new chapter in experience. It could only have been written by someone with Bryher's delicate sense of mood, and with her matchless eye for the commonplace gestures which become the true symbols of an age.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The enthusiastic reception of Bryher's historical novels has made her
cryptic name increasingly familiar both to critics and to her growing public.
The name is hers legally as well as by adoption. Born near the end of the
last century as Winifred Ellerman, she was the daughter of an industrialist,
but her life has been devoted to literature and to the arts. Novels like
*The Fourteenth of October*, *The Player's Boy*, and *Roman Wall*, which have caused
her to be hailed as one of the fine writers of our time, were not her first
books but the flowering of experience and talent.

*Beowulf* comes from this same rich and recent period of her work. Already published in a French translation, and appearing now for the first time in English, the book was written for friends in Paris to give them the sense of what war had meant to the little people of London in their daily living. Returning to England from Switzerland at the outbreak of hostilities, Bryher knew just such a neighborhood and just such persons as *Beowulf* brings alive. As a documentary, *Her* novel has the same vividness that a film might bring, the sharp definitions of the films she saw during her period as an editor of *Close-Up*, one of the great magazines of the cinema. When, on *Beowulf's* appearance in French, Adrienne Monnier described it as "*une petite classique*," the French critic was speaking for the future. For it will become a source for the books of other writers, as well as an achievement in itself.

*sense of our time*

In a novel whose setting is London during the Blitz, and whose characters are the tenacious common people in crisis, Bryher proves herself as masterful a narrator of recent history as she is of ancient Roman frontiers, the cruel age of the Battle of Hastings, or of the Jacobean twilight. Compassion and humor mingle in this beautifully wrought story of a London neighborhood whose hearth is in the teashop where their lives converge. The book's title, as well as the key to its overtones, comes from the teashop's mascot, a plaster bulldog named for Beowulf, the heroic figure of the Anglo-Saxon epic of hardihood and valor. It is the souvenir of the spirit.

**Bulldog** is England's story during World War II. The novel is unmatched in contemporary fiction as a rendering of the civilian involvement in total war, which made a new chapter in human experience. It could only have been written by someone with Bryher's delicate sense of mood, and with her matchless eye for the common-place gestures which become the true and enduring symbols of an age.

**Bulldog** is England's story during World War II. The novel is unmatched in contemporary fiction as a rendering of the civilian involvement in total war, which made a new chapter in human experience. It could only have been written by someone with Bryher's delicate sense of mood, and with her matchless eye for the commonplace gestures which become the true and enduring symbols of an age.

## ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The enthusiastic reception of Bryher's historical novels has made her cryptic name increasingly familiar both to critics and to her growing public. The name is hers legally as well as by adoption. Born near the end of the last century as Winifred Ellerman, she was the daughter of a prominent industrialist, but her own life has been devoted to literature and the arts. Novels like *The Fourteenth of October*, *The Player's Boy*, and *Roman Wall*, which have caused her to be hailed as one of the fine writers of our time, were not her first books but the flowering of experience and talent.

*Beowulf* comes from this same rich and recent period of her work. Already published in a French translation, and appearing now for the first time in English, the book was written for friends in Paris to give them the sense of what war had meant to the little people of London in their daily living. Returning to England from Switzerland at the outbreak of hostilities, Bryher knew just such a neighborhood and just such persons as *Beowulf* brings alive. Her novel has the same vividness that a film might bring, the sharp definitions of the documentary films she saw during her period as association with *Close-Up*, one of the great magazines of the cinema. When, on *Beowulf's* appearance in French, Adrienne Monnier described it as "une petite classique," the French critic was speaking for the future. It will become a source for the sense of our time.

## ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Beowulf comes from this same rich and recent period of her work. Already published in a French translation, and appearing now for the first time in English, the book was written for friends in Paris to give them the sense of what war had meant to the little people of London in their daily living. Returning to England from Switzerland at the outbreak of hostilities, Bryher knew just such a neighborhood and just such persons as Beowulf brings alive. Her novel has the same vividness that a film might bring, the sharp definitions of the documentary films she saw during her period as association with Close-Up, one of the great magazines of the cinema. When, on Beowulf's appearance in French, Adrienne Mounier described it as "une petite classique," the French critic was speaking for the future. It will become a source for the sense of our time.