49 1961 British novels

Adrift In Soho is a novel by Colin Wilson. It was first published in England in 1961 by Victor Gollancz. The novel describes the English beat generation. The novel was republished to great acclaim by New London Editions in 2011, when Cathi Unsworth wrote 'Adrift in Soho is currently in production by Burning Films and with such rich source material, perhaps Wilson will now receive some contemporary reassessment for his continuing fascination with the human condition and the wit, warmth and insight that he brings to his accounts of those he has shared his unusual journeys with.'

The Dark Crusader is a 1961 thriller novel by Scottish author Alistair MacLean. The book was initially published under the pseudonym Ian Stuart and later under his true name. It was released in the United States under the title: The Black Shrike.

The Borrowers Aloft is a children's fantasy novel by Mary Norton, published in 1961 by Dent in the UK and Harcourt in the US. It was the fourth of five books in a series that is usually called The Borrowers, inaugurated by The Borrowers in 1952.

Call for the Dead is John le Carré's first novel, published in 1961. It introduces George Smiley, the most famous of le Carré's recurring characters, in a story about East German spies inside Great Britain. It also introduces a fictional version of British Intelligence, called "the Circus" because of its location in Cambridge Circus, that is apparently based on MI6 and that recurs throughout le Carré's spy novels. Call for the Dead was filmed as The Deadly Affair, released in 1966.

Castle Dor is a 1961 historical novel by Daphne du Maurier, set in 19th century Cornwall.

A Civil Contract is a Regency romance novel by Georgette Heyer, first published in 1961. Set in 1814-1815, it is also a historical novel and follows the general pattern of storytelling of Heyer's other novels. The romantic plot centers on a viscount who reluctantly enters a marriage of convenience with a wealthy commoner's daughter.

Dawn Wind is a historical novel for children and young adults written by Rosemary Sutcliff and published in 1961 by Oxford University Press, with illustrations by Charles Keeping.

The Day of The Sardine is a novel by the British writer Sid Chaplin. First published in 1961, it is set in a working-class community in Newcastle upon Tyne at the very beginning of the 1960s.

The Enclosure (1961) is a novel by Susan Hill. Hill wrote the novel when she was 15 years old.

A Fall of Moondust is a hard science fiction novel by British writer Arthur C. Clarke, first published in 1961. It was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Novel, and was the first science fiction novel selected to become a Reader's Digest Condensed Book.

Fear Is the Key is a 1961 first-person narrative thriller novel by Scottish author Alistair MacLean.

Five Go to Demon's Rocks is the nineteenth novel in The Famous Five series by Enid Blyton. It was first published in 1961.

Flight into Camden is a novel by British author and playwright David Storey. Written in 1961, it won the 1963 Somerset Maugham Prize for fiction.

The Fox in the Attic is a 1961 novel by Richard Hughes, who is best known for A High Wind in Jamaica. It was the first novel in his unfinished The Human Predicament trilogy.

A House for Mr Biswas is a 1961 novel by V. S. Naipaul, significant as Naipaul's first work to achieve acclaim worldwide. It is the story of Mohun Biswas, a Hindu Indo-Trinidadian who continually strives for success and mostly fails, who marries into the influential Tulsi family only to find himself dominated by it, and who finally sets the goal of owning his own house. It relies on some biographical elements from the experience of the author's father, and views a colonial world sharply with postcolonial perspectives.

Household Ghosts is a 1961 novel by the British writer James Kennaway. It portrays the intense relationship between a brother and sister, members of a declining upper-class family in rural Perthshire.

I Met a Lady is a 1961 novel by the British writer Howard Spring. During the First World War a boy is sent from Manchester to stay in Cornwall due to improve his health. There he meets an unusual group of characters who influence him strongly and intertwine with his life over the coming decades.

Ice in the Bedroom is a novel by P.G. Wodehouse, first published as a book in the United States on February 2, 1961 by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, and in the United Kingdom on October 15, 1961 by Herbert Jenkins, London.

The Incredible Journey (1961), by Scottish author Sheila Burnford, is a children's book first published by Hodder & Stoughton, which tells the story of three pets as they travel 300 miles (480 km) through the Canadian wilderness searching for their beloved masters. It depicts the suffering and stress of an arduous journey, together with the unwavering loyalty and courage of the three animals. The story is set in the northwestern part of Ontario, which has many lakes, rivers, and widely dispersed small farms and towns.

The Ivy Tree is a novel of romantic suspense by English author Mary Stewart. Her sixth novel, it was published in 1961 in Britain by Hodder & Stoughton and in 1962 in the United States by William Morrow. As usual with the author, the novel is narrated in first person by a bold and intelligent young woman, and the setting is picturesque - in this case, Northumberland.

James and the Giant Peach is a popular children's novel written in 1961 by British author Roald Dahl. The original first edition published by Alfred Knopf featured illustrations by Nancy Ekholm Burkert. There have been reillustrated versions of it over the years, done by Michael Simeon for the first British edition, Emma Chichester Clark, Lane Smith and Quentin Blake. It was adapted into a film of the same name in 1996, and a musical in 2010.

The Judas Tree is a 1961 novel by A. J. Cronin. It is considered one of the author's finest works and demonstrated a keen understanding of sin. Cronin described the book as "a complete dissection of a supreme egoist - a well-intentioned man who, through psychological and sociological influences, develops into a weak and self-indulgent heel who brings disaster on three different women and is himself destroyed by the fourth."

Key to the Door is a novel by English author Alan Sillitoe, first published in 1961.

A Lotus for Miss Quon is a 1961 thriller novel by the British writer James Hadley Chase.

Marnie is an English crime novel, written by Winston Graham and first published in 1961. It has been adapted as a film, a stage play and an opera.

Mezzotint is a 1961 comedy novel by the British writer Compton Mackenzie.

Mr Olim is a novel by Ernest Raymond, published to critical acclaim by Cassell in 1961. It is often used by teacher training colleges to encourage students to analyse successful teaching (Mallinson,1968).

The Mystery of Banshee Towers by Enid Blyton is the last children's novel in a series of fifteen known collectively as The Five Find-Outers and Dog. The series ran for eighteen years, from 1943 to this one, published in 1961.

Night’s Black Agent is a 1961 thriller novel by the British writer John Bingham.

No Fond Return of Love is a novel by Barbara Pym, first published in 1961.

The Old Men at the Zoo is a novel written by Angus Wilson, first published in 1961 by Secker and Warburg and by Penguin books in 1964. It was adapted, with many changes—nuclear bombing of London, not present in the novel, is added—into a 1983 BBC Television serial by the scriptwriter Troy Kennedy Martin. The book deals with events before a nuclear attack on London during a (presumably) limited nuclear war, which results in the imposition of a later post-apocalyptic pan-European dystopian dictatorship, until rescue arrives for the prisoners at the zoo, transformed into a concentration camp.

One Hand Clapping is a 1961 work by Anthony Burgess published originally under the pseudonym Joseph Kell in the UK.

The Pale Horse is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 6 November 1961, and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company the following year. The UK edition retailed at fifteen shillings and the US edition at $3.75. The novel features her novelist detective Ariadne Oliver as a minor character, and reflects in tone the supernatural novels of Dennis Wheatley who was then at the height of his popularity. The Pale Horse is mentioned in Revelation 6:8, where it is ridden by Death.

Peter's Room is a book by British children's author Antonia Forest, published in 1961. It is the fifth instalment of the modern Marlow series, between End of Term and The Thuggery Affair. Unlike the school stories for which Forest is best known, Peter's Room is set entirely at the family's home.

The Primal Urge is a 1961 science fiction novel by Brian Aldiss. A satire on sexual reserve, it explores the effects on society of a forehead-mounted Emotion Register that glows when the wearer experiences sexual attraction.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a novel by Muriel Spark, the best known of her works. It first saw publication in The New Yorker magazine and was published as a book by Macmillan in 1961. The character of Miss Jean Brodie brought Spark international fame and brought her into the first rank of contemporary Scottish literature. In 2005, the novel was chosen by Time magazine as one of the one hundred best English-language novels from 1923 to present. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie No. 76 on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.

Second Ending is a science fiction novel by northern Irish writer James White, published in June 1961. It first appeared in Fantastic Stories of Imagination edited by Cele Goldsmith and publish by Ziff Davis.

A Severed Head is a satirical, sometimes farcical 1961 novel by Iris Murdoch. It was Murdoch's fifth published novel.

Stephen Morris and Pilotage are two short novels by Nevil Shute; the first novels he wrote after writing poetry and short stories. Stephen Morris was finished in 1923 while Shute was working at Stag Lane for de Havilland, and Pilotage was written in 1924. Unpublished during his lifetime, but published by his estate in one volume as many of the characters are common to both novels. They are set in the budding post-war aviation industry in Britain, and also on yachts (Pilotage).

Green Knowe is a series of six children's novels written by Lucy M. Boston, illustrated by her son Peter Boston, and published from 1954 to 1976. It features a very old house, Green Knowe, based on Boston's home at the time, The Manor in Hemingford Grey, Huntingdonshire, England. In the novels she brings to life the people she imagines might have lived there.

The Sun Doctor was the second novel written in 1961 by author and actor Robert Shaw. It centers on Benjamin Hallidy, a British doctor working in Africa who is returning to England to receive a knighthood. However, he is tormented with feelings of remorse and guilt concerning the afflicted African tribe he was attending. He is also haunted by the early death of his father. The story is told mostly in flashback. It is based on the play Strange Providence. It won the 1962 Hawthornden Prize.

Term of Trial is a novel by British author James Barlow, first published in 1961 by Hamish Hamilton. The story is divided between a school environment and a courtroom, after a weak alcoholic schoolteacher is accused of indecently assaulting a female pupil. The book was adapted for a film the following year.

Thunderball is the ninth book in Ian Fleming's James Bond series, and the eighth full-length Bond novel. It was first published in the UK by Jonathan Cape on 27 March 1961, where the initial print run of 50,938 copies quickly sold out. The first novelization of an unfilmed James Bond screenplay, it was born from a collaboration by five people: Ian Fleming, Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, Ivar Bryce and Ernest Cuneo, although the controversial shared credit of Fleming, McClory and Whittingham was the result of a courtroom decision.

Unconditional Surrender is a 1961 novel by the British novelist Evelyn Waugh. The novel has also been published under the title The End of the Battle. Along with the other two novels in the series, it was adapted into a 2001 TV film with Daniel Craig.

The Way to the Lantern is a 1961 historical novel by the British writer Audrey Erskine Lindop. An English actor and confidence trickster rises to prominence during the era of the French Revolution.

The Wind from Nowhere is a science fiction novel by English author J.G. Ballard. Published in 1961, it was his debut novel. He had previously published only short stories.

Witches' Sabbath is a contemporary gothic romance novel by Paula Allardyce, published in 1961 by Hodder & Stoughton. The novel won the 1961's Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association.

The Wrong Side of the Sky is the debut novel by English author Gavin Lyall, first published in 1961. It is written in the first person narrative.