The Bottle Factory Outing

Freda and Brenda are two young women living and working in north London. Freda, aged 26, tall, blonde, and weighing 16 stone (100 kg), is flamboyant and assertive, with aspirations of going on the stage. The privately educated Brenda, aged 32, is more reticent and strives to avoid confrontation: she was previously married and lived in rural Yorkshire, but has left her husband and moved south. The two live together in a dismal bedsit, sharing a double bed, although Brenda insists on a barrier made up of a bolster and books to separate their respective halves. By day they work as labellers in a wine-bottling factory owned by Mr Paganotti.

Like Paganotti, the other workers in the factory are almost all Italian, with the exception of Patrick, an Irish van driver; and largely male, with the exception of Maria, a fellow-labeller. The senior staff members are Rossi, the manager; and Vittorio, a trainee manager and Paganotti's nephew. The workforce forms a strongly Italian enclave, deeply respectful of Paganotti, and in cautious awe of the English women. Rossi regularly summons Brenda to the remoter parts of the factory to make amorous advances towards her, which she resists. Patrick also takes an interest in her: his advances are less overt, but equally unwelcome. Freda, meanwhile, has romantic designs on Vittorio.

A works outing has been proposed by Freda (with hopes that it might provide an opportunity to seduce Vittorio), and approved by Paganotti, who has donated four barrels of wine. However, on the appointed Sunday in October, the van supposedly booked as transport is unavailable (surreptitiously cancelled by Vittorio, who wants to discourage Freda's attentions). The only transport to hand therefore comprises Rossi's Ford Cortina and the Mini belonging to Salvatore, one of the workers, which means that the number of those who can go on the trip is limited to 9 (including Freda, Brenda, Vittorio, and Patrick). The other workers, including Maria, all have to return home.

Freda had planned to visit a stately home in Hertfordshire, but Rossi instead decides to head for Windsor. The cars lose one another twice, but the two groups eventually visit Windsor Castle and St George's Chapel, before moving on to Windsor Great Park for a picnic. There is a desultory game of football; and three soldiers, exercising some horses, are offered wine and in exchange allow Rossi, Vittorio and Freda a short ride. Brenda and Freda argue, and Freda storms off into the bushes. Some time later, Brenda goes in search of her and finds her dead. She has no obvious injuries, and it is unclear exactly what has happened.

Rossi, Vittorio and Patrick all become privy to Freda's death. There is a tacit agreement not to call an ambulance or the police. The other members of the party are still unaware of the incident, and so Freda's body is bundled into the back of the Cortina under the pretence that she is drunk, and the cars proceed, as previously planned, to Windsor Safari Park. The Cortina is refused admittance because it has a soft top, and the party has to take a bus tour, leaving Freda in the Cortina. There are hints that Patrick may have been responsible for the death; but Patrick himself points the finger at Rossi.

Later, the cars return to London, where Freda's body is placed in an upstairs storage area in the bottle factory: the occupants of the Mini now become aware of what has happened. The next day, Monday, Maria cleans and prepares Freda's body, dressing her in a white nightgown. Everything is concealed from Mr Paganotti, but after he has left for the day a funeral supper takes place, with Italian confectionery and plastic tulips. A plan is hatched for disposing of the body. It will be placed in an empty sherry barrel, one of a consignment being returned to Spain: the barrel will be marked as defective, and Rossi knows that this means it will be disposed of by being thrown into the sea at Santander.

Rossi now confesses that it was he who was responsible for Freda's death: he had made a pass at her, she, in avoiding him, had fallen backwards, and he had fallen on top of her. Mulling over events afterwards, Brenda realises that, out of loyalty to the Paganotti family, Rossi is covering up for the true perpetrator, Vittorio. However, she concludes that the matter is no longer of importance. The next morning she watches as the barrel is loaded onto the back of a lorry for its final journey.

• Peter Tinniswood in The Times wrote "This is a superb novel. It is taut in construction, expansive in characterization, vibrant in atmosphere and profoundly comic".[7]
• Harry Blamires likens Freda's romantic dreams to those of Joyce's Gerty MacDowell in Ulysses and he concludes "Beryl Bainbridge manages plots of escalating comedy and grotesqueness with consummate skill. She is brilliant at scattering humour over seemingly gruesome terrain".[6]

• 1974, UK, Gerald Duckworth, ISBN 0-7156-0864-9, Pub date 24 Oct 1974, Hardback
• 1975, US, George Braziller, ISBN 0-8076-0781-9, Pub date Jan 1975, Hardback
• 1975, UK, Fontana, ISBN 0-00-616618-0, Paperback
• 1976, US, Signet, ISBN 0-451-07117-4, Pub date 03 Aug 1976, Paperback
• 1985, UK, Flamingo, ISBN 0-00-654100-3, Pub date 13 May 1985, Hardback
• 1992, UK, Penguin, ISBN 0-14-015696-8, Pub date 26 Mar 1992, Paperback
• 1994, US, Carroll & Graf, ISBN 0-7867-0146-3, Pub date 06 Sep 1994, Paperback
• 2001, UK, Gerald Duckworth, ISBN 0-7156-3081-4, Pub date 22 Feb 2001, Hardback
• 2002, UK, Soundings Ltd, ISBN 184283231X, Pub date Mar 2002, Audio (read by Julia Franklin)
• 2010, UK, Abacus, ISBN 0-349-12371-3, Pub date 02 Sep 2010, Paperback

[8]

A BBC sponsored film adaptation was planned in 1991 starring Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders with a script by Alan Plater, but the project was never made.[9]

• Beryl Bainbridge talks about her inspiration for The Bottle Factory Outing, one of her most renowned titles. First broadcast in The Book Programme on BBC2, 15 June 1976.
• Review from savidgereads
• Bottling Things Up, or Bottling Out review by Gaskella
• Study guide