Vincent Brome - J.B. Priestley

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Scanned and proofed

July 2004.

Index and plates omitted.

Italics indicated by

CAPITALS.

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J.B. PRIESTLEY

by Vincent Brome

Flyleaf 1:

There was something Herculean about John Boynton Priestleys life and work. From his lower class roots in Bradford, his Army Service in World War one and the overwhelming success of The Good Companions which made him internationally famous, the first half of his career is full of action and literary excitement culminating in his rivalry with Winston Churchill in World War Two. One of the most distinguished members of that dying breed, a man of letters, he poured out a flood of books and plays (of which the most famous are perhaps Angel Pavement, Time and the Conways, When We Are Married and An Inspector calls), had a bigger audience than any other author of the same period and lived into his ninetieth year. He broke out of the study to stand as candidate for the house of Commons, set moving the CND movement, enter UNESCO, fight for PLR and change and direct many other enterprises.

The prodigality of his professional life was matched by his private life. Regarded by some as a hunter, his various relationships led him painfully into a third marriage which lastedsuccessfullyfor thirty years. This is the first birth-to-death biography of Priestley written with the cooperation of his widow Jacquetta, his son and daughters. Vincent Brome has had full access to family papers.

There were many Priestleys. He was adept at playing out assumed roles but persisting behind the multiple selves there remained a person unknown to the outside world which this biography brilliantly realises.

Jacket design by Peter Bate.

Jacket photographs: front, Alfred Bernheim Studios; back, BBC Hulton Picture Library.

Flyleaf 2:

VINCENT BROME has written thirty-three books, nine of which are biographies, eleven novels, one an historical study and a two-volume work on the Problem of Progress. Seven of his plays have been produced. His previous biographies include Jung: Man and Myth, Freud and His Early Circle, H.G. Wells, Havelock Ellis, Frank Harris and Ernest Jones. He live in London.

Some opinions of Vincent Brome as biographer:

Jung: Man and Myth is, simply, unprecedentednot only as the first full-length biography of one of the most complicated majro talents of our time, but as an insistently factual report on a tumultuous and confusing life, produced by the rarest of all biographical gifts. HANS KELLER (Spectator).

I can recall no other biography of equal quality written so soon after the death of a great man of our time The portrait of H.G. Wells himself is nothing less than brilliant and for me the whole book has been a profoundly moving experience. COMPTON MACKENZIE (Observer).

Mr Brome [in Freud and His Early Circle] has the gift of combining irreverence with generosity. CHARLES RYCROFT (Observer).

A first rate writer. He has the refreshing good sense to resist idolotry but admire greatness. ROBERT COLES (Washington Post).

VINCENT BROMES PREVIOUS BOOKS

BIOGRAPHY:

- H.G. Wells

- Freud and His Early Circle

- The Way Back

- Havelock Ellis

- Ernest Jones Freuds Alter Ego

- Frank Harris

- Aneurin Bevan

- Six Studies in Quarrelling

- Confessions of a Writer

HISTORY:

- The International Brigades

ESSAYS:

- We Have Come a Long Way

- The Problem of Progress

NOVELS:

- The Last Surrender

- Sometimes at Night

- Acquaintance With Grief

- The Revolution

- The Surgeon

- The World of Luke Simpson

- The Embassy

- The Brain Operators

- The Happy Hostage

- The Day of the Fifth Moon

- London Consequences

J.B. PRIESTLEY

by Vincent Brome

HAMISH HAMILTON

London

HAMISH HAMILTON LTD

Published by the Penguin Group

27 Wrights Lane, London W8 5TZ, England

Viking Penguin Inc, 40 West 23rd Street, New York, New York 10010, U.S.A.

Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia

Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 2801 John Street, Markham, Ontario,

Canada L3R 1B4

Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190 Wairau Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand

Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England

First published in Great Britain 1988 by Hamish Hamilton Ltd

Copyright (c) 1988 by Vincent Brome

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Brome, Vincent

J.B. Priestley.

1. Fiction in English. Priestley, J.B.

Biographies

I. Title

823.912

ISBN 0-241-12560-X

Typeset in 11/12pt Bembo by Wyvern Typesetting Ltd, Bristol

Printed in Great Britain by Butler & Tanner Ltd, Frome and London

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CONTENTS

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Acknowledgements

1. The Early Years: 1894-1912

2. Embryo Writer: 1913-14

3. War Intervenes: 1914-15

4. The Soldier: 1915-18

5. Early Essayist and Marriage: 1919-24

6. Second Marriage: 1925-6

7. Early Novelist and THE GOOD COMPANIONS: 1926-9

8. Fame and its Consequences: 1929-30

9. America and Miss Ashcroft: 1930-1

10. ANGEL PAVEMENT: 1931-2

11. The Playwright: 1932-3

12. Family Life and ENGLISH JOURNEY: 1933-4

13. Second Visit to America: 1935-6

14. Jung, Egypt and J.W. Dunne: 1936-7

15. The Time Plays: 1937-8

16. A Lecture Tour and JOHNSON OVER JORDAN: 1938-9

17. WHEN WE ARE MARRIED: 1939

18. Broadcaster in the Second World War: 1940-1

19. Another Love Affair: 1942-4

20. The Independent Candidate: 1945-6

21. Plays, Opera and a Visit to Russia: 1945-7

22. Jacquetta Hawkes and Jack Priestley: 1947-9

23. The Love Affair Develops: 1949-51

24. Things Fall Apart: 1951-2

25. Divorce and Remarriage: 1951-2

26. Interlude: 1952-4

27. A Writing Honeymoon: 1954-5

28. Canadian Expedition: 1955-6

29. The CND Campaign: 1956-7

30. LITERATURE AND WESTERN MAN: 1958-61

31. Iris Murdoch and LOST EMPIRES: 1962-4

32. Seventy Years Old: 1964-8

33. OVER THE LONG HIGH WALL: 1969-73

34. The Last Years: 1978-84

AppendixRoyalties of English plays: 1956-7

Select Bibliography

-Works by J.B. Priestley

-Periodical studies

-Celebrations of birthdays

-Interviews

-Books concerning J.B. Priestley

Index

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List of Illustrations

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1. Jonathan and Emma Priestley, Priestleys father and mother.

2. In the beginning

3. Priestley in the First World War.

4. Convalescing after being wounded in the First World War.

5. Priestley rehearsing the part of the drunken photographer with Patricia Hayes at the St Martins Theatre in 1938.

6. In memory of the Groupe, a concert party to which Priestley belonged when he was convalescing after being wounded in the First World War.

7. Priestleys father, Jonathan Priestley.

8. Jane Priestley, his second wife.

9.Priestley with Hugh Walpole during their collaboration on the novel FARTHING HALL.

10. Priestley, John Drinkwater and Bernard Shaw during the Malvern Festival.