J.B. Priestley

The novelist, playwright and broadcaster, John Boynton ‘J.B’ Priestley, was born in Yorkshire in 1894. After serving in World War One, Priestley embarked on a career as a freelance writer and became an established critic, essayist, and novelist. His biggest success as a novelist was The Good Companions [1929].

In the 1930s Priestley turned his attention to the stage. Having adapted The Good Companions, he wrote his first play, Dangerous Corner, in 1932. Though Priestley’s plays became synonymous with mid-20th-century ‘drawing room’ theatre, he often experimented with narrative structure and was fascinated with theories of time, particularly the work of J.W. Dunne. His ‘Time Plays’ include Time and the Conways (1937) and I Have Been Here Before (1937), as well as An Inspector Calls (1945).