Room at the Top (novel) death and his successful scheme to marry upwards. He is reassured that nobody blames him for Alice's death – but he knows this is wrong, and the book closes with him aware of his conscience, forced to live with his guilt and his responsibility for what has happened. Room at the Top (novel) Room at the Top is a novel by John Braine, first published in the United Kingdom by Eyre & Spottiswoode in 1957, about the rise of an ambitious young man of humble origin, and the socio-economic struggles undergone in realising his social ambitions in post-war Britain. A
John Hampson (novelist) John Hampson (novelist) John Frederick Norman Hampson Simpson (26 March 1901 – 26 December 1955), who wrote as John Hampson, was an English novelist. Best known for his 1931 novel "Saturday Night at the Greyhound" – an unexpected success for the Hogarth Press – he was a member of the Birmingham Group of working class authors which included Walter Allen, Leslie Halward, Walter Brierley and Peter Chamberlain. His elder brother was the motorcycle racer, Jimmy Simpson (James Hampson-Simpson). Hampson was born in Handsworth in Birmingham. Unable to complete his formal education due to ill health, Hampson worked in a munitions