In this volume, fourteen of today's very best novelists and critics join forces to create a landmark study of the last 50 years of British fiction. Essays by Martin Amis, Ian McEwan, Hilary Mantel, James Wood, Christopher Hitchens, Michael Wood, Elaine Showalter, and others range from modern historical fiction and nationality to "lad lit" and the comic tradition, from criticism and reviewing to the reception of British fiction in America. Among the many writers explored here are Angus Wilson, Angela Carter, Iris Murdoch, Penelope Fitzgerald, V. S. Pritchett, Naipaul, and Rushdie. Provocative and insightful, this is a must-read for anyone interested in modern fiction.