The Taste of Too Much
Published:
1960 London, Hutchinson1964 Hammondsworth, Penguin1967 Glasgow, Blackie1977 London, White Lion1979 Glasgow , Blackie1989 Edinburgh, Mainstream1990 London, Corgi
Heartbreak and hilarity are blended in Clifford Hanley's new novel of young life in a suburb that could be anywhere, but happens all the same in Glasgow. The family next door, the rampageious relatives, the firls round the corner -- they are all here, full of vitality and exuberance.
The Taste of Too Much is a love story, a family chronicle, a comedy, a poignant drama. In his study of a boy breaking into manhood, Clifford Hanley has caught a character vivid with courage and compassion and self-doubt, against a human background rich in characters and never to be forgotten.
Clifford Hanley, who is one of the most accomplished and unpredictable of post-war writers, has already delighted the critics with the exuberant nostalgia of Dancing in the Streets. His first novel, Love from Everybody, which made a rollicking farce of amoral misadventures of a travelling man, is soon to be filmed. The Taste of Too Much is nothing like either and better than both.
From Jo: I'm in the search for reviews, of which there must have been many. "Taste" had numerous reprints over 30 years, and was required reading in Scottish secondary schools during that time. But not in my own, which didn't do me any good whatsoever.
Copyright 2025 The Estate of Clifford Hanley