The Estate of JB Priestley
Playwright / Author
Books
Film, TV & Theatre
Books
In 1927, J B Priestley's first two novels appeared, Adam in Moonshine and Benighted. In 1929 Priestley scored his first major critical success as a novelist, winning the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for The Good Companions. Angel Pavement (1930) followed and was also extremely successful. Throughout the next several decades, Priestley published numerous novels, many of them very popular and successful, including Bright Day (1946), and Lost Empires (1965), and was also a prolific and highly regarded playwright. Work is now focused on ensuring his vibrant and extensive backlist is kept alive for new audiences.
Recent and forthcoming:
BENIGHTED was re-issued by Viking in 2025:
A gothic treat shot through with the dejection and anxiety of a world recovering from the horrors of the First World War, J. B. Priestley’s Benighted is a razor-sharp blend of dark social satire and even darker dread.
A group of travellers find themselves marooned in the Welsh countryside by torrential rains and buffeting winds. Desperate to find shelter from the storm, they flee to a crumbling mansion, where they are reluctantly taken in by the cloistered, erratic Femm family. Strange on first meeting, the secretive family’s true peculiarities only become clear as the night unfolds…
Praise:
‘There are none too many stories comparable with this one’ - The New York Times
DELIGHT was re-issued by HarperNorth in 2023:
There are times when there doesn’t seem much to smile about. And for those times, there is this book. J. B Priestley’s 1949 classic teaches us that joy may be found in even the simplest things, and that we all have the capacity to appreciate them. DELIGHT comprises a series of short essays, all focussing on a single simple pleasure, from reading detective stories in bed to smoking a pipe in the bath; from ‘Cosy planning’ to the earliest summer mornings; and from mineral water in the bedrooms of foreign hotels to the smell of bacon in the morning.
Praise:
‘An exquisitely-written, generous, funny, thoughtful book about the everyday joys of being alive. I love it.’ Dolly Alderton
‘J. B. Priestley is one of our literary icons of the 20th Century and it is time that we all became re-acquainted with his genius.’ Dame Judi Dench
ENGLISH JOURNEY was re-issued by HarperNorth in 2023
Three years before George Orwell made his expedition to the far and frozen North in The Road to Wigan Pier, J B Priestley cast his net wider. Appearing first in 1934, it was a huge and immediate success. Today, it stands a timeless classic: warm-hearted, patriotic and profound. An account of his journey from Southampton to the Black Country, to the North East and Newcastle, to Norwich and home, this book is funny, tender, a forensic reading of a changing England and a call to arms.
Film, TV & Theatre
John Boynton Priestley was born in 1894 in Bradford, Yorkshire, son of a schoolmaster,. He left Belle Vue School at 16 and worked in a wool office, beginning to write in his spare time. He volunteered for the army in 1914 and served throughout the First World War, surviving the grim conditions of the trenches,
He gained a grant to go to Cambridge and launched his professional career with Brief Diversions, a collection of short pieces, which attracted attention in London. After graduating, he moved to London with his first wife, Pat, and set up as a professional writer , reviewing, writing essays and literary biographies and reading for the publisher John Lane. His fourth novel, THE GOOD COMPANIONS, came out in 1929 and was a huge success, followed by ANGEL PAVEMENT, in 1930. He entered the theatre in 1932 with DANGEROUS CORNER, and dominated the London stage during the 1930s with a succession of plays such as EDEN END, I HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE, TIME AND THE CONWAYS, WHEN WE ARE MARRIED and JOHNSON OVER JORDAN, and in the 1940s with THEY CAME TO A CITY, AN INSPECTOR CALLS, THE LINDEN TREE, SUMMER DAY''S DREAM and THE GLASS CAGE in 1958.
During the Second World War, he established a new reputation as a broadcaster. A profilic writer, he continued writing novels. notably BRIGHT DAY and LOST EMPIRES, and an important list of non-fiction, ENGLISH JOURNEY, launched him into a new role as a social commentator.
MIDNIGHT ON THE DESERT and RAIN UPON GODSHILL were chapters of autobiography, MARGIN RELEASED a memoir, LITERATURE AND WESTERN MAN, the sum of a lifetime's reading. and three social histories were THE PRINCE OF PLEASURE, THE EDWARDIANS and VICTORIA'S HEYDAY. Over all, he published more than 100 books - non-fiction, fiction and drama, as well as countles newspaper articles and reviews.
He was married three times and had four daughters and one son. He was a lifelong socialist of the old kind, yet never joined the Labour Party. He was a spokesman for the ordinary people, unashamedly middlebrow, patriotic and honest and, opposed to the class system, he turned down offers of a knighthood and a peerage but gladly accepted the Order of Merit in 1977.
He died in 1984.
Theatre
| Production | Company | Notes |
|---|---|---|
THE GLASS CAGE 1958 | ||
TAKE THE FOOL AWAY 1956 | ||
TREASURE ON PELICAN 1953 | ||
THE DRAGON'S MOUTH 1952 | ||
BRIGHT SHADOW 1950 | ||
THE ROSE AND CROWN 1947 | ||
HOME IS TOMORROW 1948 | ||
EVER SINCE PARADISE 1947 | ||
THE LINDEN TREE 1947 | ||
THEY CAME TO A CITY 1942 | ||
HOW ARE THEY AT HOME 1943 | ||
AN INSPECTOR CALLS 1943 | ||
THE LONG MIRROR 1940 | ||
JOHNSON OVER JORDAN 1939 | ||
WHEN WE ARE MARRIED 1938 | ||
PEOPLE AT SEA 1937 | ||
TIME AND THE CONWAYS 1937 | ||
I HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE 1937 | ||
EDEN END 1934 | ||
LABURNUM GROVE 1933 | ||
DANGEROUS CORNER 1932 |