Life at the Top life in Warley in response to trouble with his children and the self-knowledge of what his life needs. Life at the Top Life At The Top is the third novel by the English author John Braine, first published in the UK by Eyre & Spottiswoode and in the US by Houghton Mifflin & Co. in 1962. It continues the story of the life and difficulties of Joe Lampton, an ambitious young man of humble origins. A 1965 film adaptation of the novel was made starring Laurence Harvey. In September 2012, BBC television finally broadcast a two-part television adaptation of "Room
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