In his new forward to this book, Michael Frayn runs through some of the titles under which the book has previously been published. To be honest, I’m not sure that Towards the End of the Morning is quite the right title still, but it’s the one we’re left with.
Since Faber republished this book a year or two ago, I’d been meaning to read it, as it has been described as one of those essential novels about newspaper journalism – right up there with Evelyn Waugh’s Scoop (which of course I absolutely adore).
I don’t think I’d rate it quite as highly, although you can totally believe that it was thoroughly accurate for its time. Somehow, one doesn’t see newspapers being quite as overstaffed as that now.
An entertaining novel, and very amusing.