Writing radical protest: The Angry Brigade and two English novels

Abstract

The Angry Brigade was a group of individuals who claimed responsibility for a series of attacks against property at the beginning of the 1970s. They were infuriated by the social and political situation in Britain, particularly anti-working-class legislation introduced by the Conservative government.The trial of eight people accused of the bombings received widespread press coverage which presented them in a derisory fashion. A consideration of the Angry Brigade’s activities and the reasons behind their actions will be followed by a discussion of two novels: Christie Malry’s Own Double-Entry by BS Johnson and The Angry Brigade by Alan Burns, both written out of the same sense of injustice. We will find that these novels go beyond the narration of the circumstances that lead to terrorist acts or the acts themselves to become acts of radical protest which depict the motives which provoke such a violent response.