is a lively, wide-ranging guide to the key issues in writing in Britain since the mid-1970s, including social change, gender, sexuality, class, history and ethnicity. Designed to address problems faced by students in the exciting but challenging field of contemporary fiction, the text is organised to focus on major topics including: - the changing nature of British identity;- the representation of urban identity and urban spaces;- class issues including the rise and fall of the middle class;- multiracial identity and hybridity.The second edition includes a new introduction and a new chapter on fiction since the millennium focusing on a post 9/11 aesthetic. Every chapter has been revised for the new edition and now includes an initial overview and recommended reading to offer guidance on further study. Includes readings of novels by:  Martin Amis, Pat Barker, A. S. Byatt, Jonathan Coe, Hanif Kureishi, Salman Rushdie, Will Self, Zadie Smith, Jeanette Winterson among others.