Looking Back

Description

When John Osborne died at Christmas 1994, his obituaries cited his autobiographical writings as perfect examples of undiluted talent and acerbic wit. Now, Osborne's superb autobiographies, A Better Class of Person: 1929 - 1956 and Almost a Gentleman: 1955 - 1966 (winner of the J. R. Ackerley Prize), are available for the first time in one volume, Looking Back.

John Osborne was born in London in 1929. Before becoming a playwright he worked as a journalist, assistant stage manager and repertory theatre actor. Seeing an advertisement for new plays in The Stage in 1956, Osborne submitted Look Back in Anger. Not only was the play produced, but it was to become considered as the turning point in post-war British theatre. Osborne's protagonist, Jimmy Porter, captured the rebelliousness of an entire post-war generation of 'angry young men'. His other plays include The Entertainer (1957), Luther (1961), Inadmissable Evidence (1964), and A Patriot for Me (1966). He also wrote two volumes of autobiography, A Better Class of Person (1981) and Almost a Gentleman (1991). His last play, Dejavu (1991), returns to the characters of Look Back in Anger, over thirty years later. Both Look Back in Anger and The Entertainer were adapted for film, and in 1963 Osbo