J.B. Priestley
1 book analyzed
Biography
John Boynton Priestley (1894-1984) grew up in Bradford, a northern industrial city that shaped his socialist convictions. He served in the trenches during World War One, was buried alive, gassed, and wounded — experiences that left him with a lifelong hatred of the ruling class that had sent working men to die. After the war he attended Cambridge on an ex-serviceman's grant, became a prolific novelist, playwright, and broadcaster, and during World War Two delivered a series of BBC radio talks ('Postscripts') that rivalled Churchill's in popularity and influence. His broadcasts championed the common people and argued for a fairer post-war society. Churchill's government took them off the air. Priestley was instrumental in founding the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and spent his life arguing that theatre should be a force for social change, not merely entertainment.