Room at the Top (novel) 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 film adaptation was made in 1959, followed in 2012 by a TV film. John Minton's cover art from the first edition was restored and used on the new edition by Valancourt Books in 2013. Joe Lampton, demobilised at the end of the Second World War, is starting in
John Peter (novelist) John Peter (novelist) John Desmond Peter (1921–1983) was an English literature scholar, essayist, and novelist born in South Africa. He studied law at the University of South Africa, and English literature at Cambridge University, later obtaining his Ph.D. from Rhodes University. Peter came to Canada in 1950 and taught English at the University of Manitoba for eleven years. He joined the Victoria College Department of English in 1961. He was co-founder, with Robin Skelton, of the literary magazine "Malahat Review". He is remembered mostly widely for his 1952 essay "A New Interpretation of "The Waste Land"", in which he interpreted