''Standing Room Only'' is a 1936

comedy novel A comic novel is a novel-length work of humorous fiction. Many well-known authors have written comic novels, including P. G. Wodehouse, Henry Fielding, Mark Twain, and John Kennedy Toole. Comic novels are often defined by the author's liter ...

by the British writer

Walter Greenwood Walter Greenwood (17 December 1903 – 13 September 1974) was an English novelist, best known for the socially influential novel '' Love on the Dole'' (1933). Early life Greenwood was born at 56 Ellor Street, his father's house and hairdre ...

.Russell p.96 It was his third novel. Like his previous two, including his bestselling debut ''

Love on the Dole ''Love on the Dole'' is a novel by Walter Greenwood, about working-class poverty in 1930s Northern England. It has been made into both a play and a film. The novel Walter Greenwood's novel (1933) was written during the early 1930s as a respons ...

'', the work is partly set in his native

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

. The novel was somewhat self-reflexive as the protagonist Henry Ormerod strongly resembles Greenwood's own background and experiences. It was not as critically well-received as his two previous novels.

Synopsis

Henry Ormerod, a

working-class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colo ...

draper Draper was originally a term for a retailer or wholesaler of cloth that was mainly for clothing. A draper may additionally operate as a cloth merchant or a haberdasher. History Drapers were an important trade guild during the medieval peri ...

's assistant, has ambitions to become a playwright which are mocked by both his mother and prospective wife Edna. However his play is unexpectedly generates interest from a

theatrical producer A theatrical producer is a person who oversees all aspects of mounting a theatre production. The producer is responsible for the overall financial and managerial functions of a production or venue, raises or provides financial backing, and hire ...

who sees it as a perfect vehicle for a female

star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth make ...

, leading to one his rivals to outbid him and buy the rights to the work. Ormerod travels south to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

West End West End most commonly refers to: * West End of London, an area of central London, England * West End theatre, a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London, England West End may also refer to: Pl ...

, but finds he has lost all financial and artistic control over his work. Abandoning his romantic pursuit of the actress Dilys Richmond, he flees back to the north. However the play is a huge hit and the royalties allow him to buy a large house in the suburbs, now married to Edna. To his alarm, he finds he has no ideas for any further plays and is likely to remain a

one-hit wonder A one-hit wonder or viral hit is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music p ...

References

Bibliography

* Hopkins, Chris. ''Walter Greenwood's Love on the Dole: Novel, Play, Film''. Oxford University Press, 2018. * Russell, Dave. ''Looking North: Northern England and the National Imagination''. Manchester University Press, 2004. 1936 British novels Novels by Walter Greenwood Novels set in Manchester Novels set in London British comedy novels Jonathan Cape books {{1930s-comedy-novel-stub