Bel Ami the London College of Music. The music and lyrics were written by Alex Loveless. John Braine, the English novelist, stated that his favourite author was Guy de Maupassant and that his first novel, "Room at the Top" (1957), was based on "Bel Ami", but 'the critics didn't pick it up'. Bel Ami Bel Ami is the second novel by French author Guy de Maupassant, published in 1885; an English translation titled "Bel Ami, or, The History of a Scoundrel: A Novel" first appeared in 1903. The story chronicles journalist Georges Duroy's corrupt rise to power from a poor former cavalry
Room at the Top (novel) future he can take pride in. In Warley, he takes lodgings with the Thompsons, a middle class couple living in the better part of town, known locally as "T'top". Lampton is delighted to find himself already socially advantaged by taking, quite literally, a "Room at the top", and this serves as a metaphor for his ambition to better himself and to leave behind any vestige of his former life and acquaintances, many of whom he characterises as "zombies", lacking any trace of genuine life and character. Everything about Warley is an improvement on his former life in Dufton. The Thompsons