Brighton rock

Samuel West reads Graham Greene's classic gang war thriller - complete and unabridged. 'Hale knew, before he had been in Brighton three hours, that they meant to murder him...' So begins "Brighton Rock", in which a gang war rages through the dark underworld of 1930s Brighton.

Seventeen-year-old Pinkie Brown, malign and ruthless, has killed a man.

Believing he can escape retribution, he is unprepared for the courageous, life-embracing Ida Arnold.

Greene's gripping thriller exposes a world of loneliness and fear, of life lived on the 'dangerous edge of things'. "Brighton Rock" has twice been adapted for film. Richard Attenborough starred as Pinkie in the 1947 version, with Sam Riley and Helen Mirren starring in the 2010 release. "The most ingenious, inventive and exciting of our novelists...A master of storytelling". ("Times"). "I read "Brighton Rock" when I was about thirteen. One of the first lessons I took from it was that a serious novel could be an exciting novel...". (Ian McEwan). "A superb storyteller with a gift for provoking controversy". ("New York Times").