Braine, John (Gerard) (1922-1986)

English novelist. His novel Room at the Top (1957) cast Braine as one of the leading Angry Young Men of the period. It created the character of Joe Lampton, one of the first of the northern working-class antiheroes, who reappears in Life at the Top (1962).

In Room at the Top Joe Lampton fights a crippling ‘wrong’ class background to achieve success, but finds there is no room in a corrupt middle-class world for anyone who tries to be honest. In Life at the Top Lampton, disenchanted with worldly success, eventually resolves his inner struggles by accepting the responsibilities of marriage and children. Other novels include The Jealous God (1964), a study of the Catholic priesthood; One and Last Love (1981), a celebration of true love; and two spy stories.