The bottle factory outing door Beryl Bainbridge

Title The bottle factory outing Author Beryl Bainbridge Summary Brenda has left her bully of a husband behind in Yorkshire and moved to London, where she meets Freda. They strike up a friendship and decide to live together. They both work in the Paganotti bottle factory and are planning an outing for the employees, who are all Italian expatriates. Freda hopes to get intimate with Vittorio. Rossi, the manager, tries to get Brenda to be intimate with him. Patrick, an Irish colleague, offers to mend ther toilet and arrives with Vittorio, who has come to offer his condolences for the alleged death of Freda's mother. Brenda stays in the bathroom with Patrick, and Freda and Vittorio almost start to make love. Then Brenda's mother-in-law appears with an airgun to shoot at Brenda for what she has done to her son. The police arrive and the evening ends in mayhem. After theis episode Freda becomes very quiet and subdued, but soon picks up again as the Sunday Outing is coming closer and her hopes to catch Vittorio rise. On the Sunday morning of the Outing the October weather is cold and windy. The van wich had been ordered to transport the group doesn't arrive, so most men go home. Rossi, Freda, Vittorio and Brenda leave in Rossi's car. Others follow in a red mini. As they are driving through London, Rossi doesn't seem to know where they ar going and they lose the red mini. They end up at Windsor Castle. When Freda wants to get intimate with Vittoriuo he holds back and tries to tell her he has 'other commitments', but she doesn't want to hear. Meanwhile Rossi is feeling up Brenda. During their picnic Freda is attackjed in the woods by an unknown person throwing pebbles at her. She hurls back a large stone. Brenda is sorry abou8t her fight with Freda and looks for her in the woods. She finds her lying dead, with a broken neck. They decide to hide Freda in the bottle factory in order not to create panic. Rossi explains how Freda died: when he saw her in the woods and wanted to touch her, she stepped away form hem, fell and broke her neck. Meanwhile Freda is being packed and sealed in the barrel and rolled away. And so Brenda's story ends where is started: alone in Camden Town, no husband, no friend. But she has gained one thing: the sympathy of her colleagues. At the end she decides to stay with her father, so there is possibility that Branda may close this chapter of her life's history and start a new one, a sadder and wiser woman.