{"product_id":"circus-of-dreams-adventures-in-the-1980s-literary-world-by-john-walsh","title":"'Circus of Dreams: Adventures in the 1980s Literary World' by John Walsh","description":"\u003ch4 data-start=\"75\" data-end=\"476\"\u003eJohn Walsh’s memoir of 1980s literary London is a study of publishing at full social volume: parties, prizes, gossip, rivalries and a lot of lunches.\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"75\" data-end=\"476\"\u003eMoving among authors, editors, critics, agents and booksellers, Walsh recalls a period when literary culture still had the confidence—and occasionally the vanity—of a recognisable world unto itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"478\" data-end=\"937\"\u003eThe book is strongest as an insider’s social history. There's a lot of gossip, around personalities, grudges and institutions: Salman Rushdie, Martin Amis, Ian McEwan, Julian Barnes, Angela Carter and many others appear within a culture simultaneously serious about literature and helplessly addicted to theatre. It is affectionate without being naïve, alert to the comedy of reputations being manufactured in real time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"939\" data-end=\"1173\"\u003eFor readers drawn to publishing history, literary gossip and the sociology of cultural prestige: a portrait of the decade when British letters became a circus, and everyone important insisted they were merely passing through the tent.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"1175\" data-end=\"1322\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eConstable hardcover, 2022. First edition, first printing. Light shelfwear to dust jacket; internally clean and firmly bound.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"bower studio","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45873120051283,"sku":null,"price":18.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0689\/0268\/2707\/files\/Yourparagraphtext-2026-07-28T150524.746.png?v=1785215193","url":"https:\/\/bowerbooks.com\/products\/circus-of-dreams-adventures-in-the-1980s-literary-world-by-john-walsh","provider":"bower books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}