J. B. Priestley

John Boynton Priestley (Bradford, 1894 – Stratford-upon-Avon, 1984) was an English novelist, playwright and broadcaster who wrote in English for much of the twentieth century. His work, closely tied to the industrial north of England, combined popular success with a lasting interest in politics and in the nature of time.

Born in a suburb on the edge of Bradford, he lost his mother when he was still a small child. He left school at sixteen to work as a clerk for a wool trading firm, writing articles for newspapers in the evenings. He fought in the First World War, was seriously wounded, and later studied history at Cambridge.

His first major novel, The Good Companions (1929), brought him national fame. He then turned to the theatre, where he enjoyed a run of hits in London's West End. Influenced by J. W. Dunne's ideas about time, he wrote the so-called Time plays, whose plots do not follow a straight chronological order. His best-known play, An Inspector Calls, blends a family mystery with a sharp social critique and a socialist outlook.

During the Second World War he became a prominent voice on the BBC through his Postscripts talks, and in 1942 he co-founded the Common Wealth Party. His left-wing views brought him into conflict with the government, and his name appeared on the list George Orwell compiled in 1949. In the 1950s he grew disillusioned with the Labour Party and joined the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

His legacy endures in the reissue of his novels, the frequent staging of his plays and the continuing interest of historians in his role as an intellectual within recent British society.