The Contemporary British Novel is a lively, wide-ranging, lucid guide to the key issues in writing in Britain since the mis-1970's, including social change, urban identity, and history and its relationship with the present. Philip Tew provides close readings of key works by a wide range of interesting writers, including both canonical figures and writers neglected in traditional surveys. He argues that contemporary writing should be studied in its own right rather than simply as a continuation of post-war trends and provides a fresh analysis of recent fiction and its historical and cultural contexts in contemporary Britain. Philip Tew is Reader in English and Aesthetics, University of Central England, Birmingham. He is founding Director of the UK Network for Modern Fiction Studies. His publications include B.S. Johnson: A Critical Reading (2001) and Contemporary British Fiction (edited with Rod Mengham and Richard Lane, 2003).