One Hand Clapping

One Hand Clapping is the story of Janet and Howard Shirley, living a dreary life in the dreary fictional northern city of Bradcaster. Howard works at the local garage and Janet works in the local supermarket, and they spend their evenings having dinner in front of the television. Their lives begin to change when Howard's photographic memory wins them a gameshow fortune.

Janet doesn't want their lives to change that much. She is quite happy with the routine of their ordinary life, improved as it is by consumer goods and modern household conveniences. But once Howard unleashes his unusual brain on the world, the used-car salesman can't seem to stop; and what he sees as the logical conclusion to their success isn't something Janet can agree to.

Anthony Burgess's darkly comic satire of 1960s consumerism explores themes of the importance or otherwise of culture and education and the growing influence of America, and taps into contemporary anxieties about the future.