Books by John Osborne

In 1950, St Peter''s College, Saltley celebrated its centenary. The occasion was marked with a number of events, one of which was the publication of this book. A lively mixture of history and anecdote, it not only tells the story of the first hundred years of the College, but also offers something of the flavour of life at a much-loved establishment - the dedication of the staff, the humour of the students, and the sacrifices they all made in pursuit of their chosen profession and the protection of their country.

Archie Rice is a failure as a comedian. News of his son's death while on military service arrives as the family is anticipating his return with a party. Archie tries to stage a comeback for his befuddled, has-been father who, mercifully, dies in the attempt. A prosperous brother offers to send the family to Canada but Archie cannot leave the decaying world of the music hall, where he is at home.-3 women, 5 men

Based on the true story of the last man to stand trial for blasphemy in England, A Subject Of Scandal And Concern was originally written for television in 1960 starring Richard Burton and Rachel Roberts. This production marks the first theatrical staging of the play in over 40 years and its long overdue London premiere.

This third collection of John Osborne's dramatic work includes three classic plays for the stage which confirm his reputation as one of the greatest British playwrights of the twentieth century.

In 1956 John Osborne's Look Back in Anger changed the course of English theatre. This volume includes some of the early plays which launched his career along its startling trajectory, as well as his much later play, Dejavu, which brings us Look Back in Anger's Jimmy Porter thirty-five years on, older and wiser, but no less indignantly eloquent.

The story of a man who preserves his youth while his portrait visibly deteriorates with time.

In 1956 John Osborne's Look Back in Anger changed the course of English theatre.'Look Back in Anger presents post-war youth as it really is. To have done this at all would be a significant achievement; to have done it in a first play is a minor miracle. All the qualities are there, qualities one had despaired of ever seeing on stage - the drift towards anarchy, the instinctive leftishness, the automatic rejection of "e;official"e; attitudes, the surrealist sense of humour . . . the casual promiscuity, the sense of lacking a crusade worth fighting for and, underlying all these, the determination that no one who dies shall go unmourned.' Kenneth Tynan, Observer, 13 May 1956'Look Back in Anger . . . has its inarguable importance as the beginning of a revolution in the British theatre, and as the central and most immediately influential expression of the mood of its time, the mood of the "e;angry young man"e;.' John Russell Taylor

John Osbourne answers some difficult questions in Gerhart Hauptmann and the Naturalist Drama, a revised and updated version of his The Naturalist Drama in Germany, now widely acknowledged as the standard introduction to the subject.