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
Room at the Top (1959 film) in which Simone Signoret was eventually cast. He hired Jack Clayton as director after seeing "The Bespoke Overcoat", a short, on which John Woolf had worked (uncredited) and their film company had produced. "Room at the Top" is thought to be the first of the British New Wave of Kitchen sink realism film dramas. It was filmed at Shepperton Studios in Surrey, with extensive location work in Halifax, Yorkshire, which stood in for the fictional towns of Warnley and Dufton. Some scenes were also filmed in Bradford, notably with Joe travelling on a bus and spotting Susan in a lingerie