Books published by Samuel French Ltd

It's the mid-1950s and 'innocent abroad' Steven Flowers has travelled to Florence to teach English in a chaotic language school, Lingua Franca. He is soon adopted by fellow Brit, Peggy, but is more interested in Heidi, a newcomer from Munich.

"...a lot of these things, these impulses, are healthy things, but they just get distorted. Or maybe it's the world that gets - is - distorted, but you see, it's my job to get people to fit in with the world, distorted or not, so that they feel happy. Or, not sad. Or...functioning."Tessa is a psychotherapist who has been instructed to provide a medical report on one of her patients for the criminal court. This has been Tessa's most exceptional case in all her twenty years of practice. As treatment progresses she finds herself asking deeper, more far-reaching questions, not just about her patient, but the world and its motives. The B*easts is a chillingly relevant tale of the pornification of culture and sexualisation of our children, and how far one mum will go to put what her child wants first.

This beautiful and moving play confronts the basic question of how successfully two blind people can live in a world made for the sighted. Working on two levels, the play is a sharp study of the experience of blindness, and a picture of love trying to shut out the dark.|2 women, 1 man

Duncan and George feel far from comfortable attending a Weight Busters meeting, surrounded as they are by women. Waiting for the meeting to start, they meet an old flame of George''s - who bore him a child many years earlier - and Duncan strikes up an affecting romance with a sign language teacher. Line dancing and snatches of Gilbert and Sullivan enhance the jolly mood of this touching comedy-drama.|5 women, 3 men

Letitia, presenter of the hit TV show "Mind Your Own Business", wants to interview Myrtle Banbury in her own home and Lenny has a problem - how can he conduct the interview without having to appear to the British public in drag? An additional complication arrives in the form of Fran, Lenny's ex-wife. This title is a sequel to "Nobody's Perfect".

June Evening was originally a radio play, broadcast in 1958.  It was televised in July 1960 and proved very influential, causing a sensation as one of the first ''kitchen sink'' TV plays, nine months before Coronation Street was first aired. Naughton contended that Granada lifted his idea, the story being set around one Lancashire Street with a corner shop.  Set in Holdsworth Street, Bolton in 1921, we watch the Street''s inhabitants argue, love and gossip the evening away.|8 women, 5 men

Hugo, a PR consultant on his way to an important meeting, and Martha, a Museum Education Officer with a case full of liberty bodices, are trapped in an overturned railway carriage following a rail crash, waiting tensely to be rescued. A touching relationship begins to develop between them, but they are torn apart by tragedy.|1 woman, 1 man

On the eve of Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee celebrations, a papier-mache statue of Her Royal Highness stands in Margaret Chivers' living-room in preparation for the Jubilee parade. Two factions converge on the house with the aim of vandalizing the statue.

This take on the National Health Service sees chaos erupt as patients, agency nurses, doctors and sisters battle it out at the start of another busy weekend on the under-funded and under-staffed mixed ward at St Christopher's Hospital.

The Whooperdink is a rare fantastical bird with hidden magic powers, seen only by the Urgles who reverently feed it on strawberry jam. So when Professor Potterton is informed by a fellow scientist of a sighting in Urgleland he eagerly sets off with his daughter Crystal. Along the way they encounter Salmonella, a wicked witch in disguise, her son Seth, cursed into idiocy twenty years earlier by a spell, and the Snowfl ake Maker, doomed to travel about creating snow and all the while dreaming of sun-kissed beaches.|2 women, 3 men

David Lawson, a research scientist, is not a well man. His sister Beatie thinks his wife Claire doesn't take care of him and journalist Kit Kelly begins to suspect that Claire may be guilty of more than just negligence as her grandmother and first husband died in mysterious circumstances...

Apart from a surprising change of heart and bid for sympathy at the final momen''s of this version of the classic story, Todd glories in his villainies throughout and gleefully slaughters right and left until the cast is almost eliminated. Commendably, the''story is treated seriously and ''guying'' is discouraged.|3 women, 8 men, 2 boys

“We are all animals. The only difference is we pretend to be something better. But we’re not. We’re cruel, greedy, stupid and  selfish. We have no rights, no obligations, no duty to anyone or anything. Welcome to the farm, Daddy!”Five years after her death, Gerry and Roger’s mum, Martha, has gone missing. Well, most of her has...The unwitting victims of animal rights activists campaigning for the freedom of the family frog farm’s slimy inhabitants, the brothers bring in the hapless Inspector Clout to establish the whereabouts of their long dead mother.An absurdly funny comedy, Raising Martha tackles terrorism, animal rights and six-foot frogs!

The Bed Before Yesterday is a comedy for four men and four women. Alma, a rich but physically far from lovely widow, has had no sexual experience since the sole, off-putting occasion of her wedding night some twenty years ago. She marries the impoverished gentleman, Victor, now equally uninterested in sexual activities, on the understanding that their relationship shall be based on friendship and convenience. However, various surprising circumstances, connected partly with Victor's son and unconventional girlfriend, and partly with her own free-and-easy cousin, warm up Alma's long-cooled fires, with unexpected, but presumably satisfying results for both her and her new husband.4 women, 5 men

Leo, a doctor, is suffering from depression and finds it hard to come to terms with his illness. Weaving through his memories as a child and a father, Leo re-lives his suspicions, panic attacks and emotions as he tries everything from hypnotism to art therapy to beat the blues.

When Terry Bailey appears on the eve of his daughter''s wedding after twenty years away in America, it is not surprising he receives a cool reception from May, the wife whom he deserted, and from her best friend Dora especially as she is the one who has to break the news of his arrival. Dora''s plan to keep the two apart goes miserably wrong and results in Terry and May coming face to face in a blistering confrontation. Terry tries various methods to achieve a reconciliation, but his wife gives vent to twenty years of suppressed anger. Only as the play ends does she agree to his being present at the wedding and does there appear to be a glimmer of hope for the future.|2 women, 2 men

This lively musical, originally written for teenagers and young people, is based on the life and times of Al Capone, the infamous Chicago gangster.|Large flexible cast

Mr Franklyn offers Henry Scrubb £3,000 to murder him. Understandably Henry refuses, but that night Franklyn is murdered - and if Henry did not do it, who did?|3 women, 4 men

Albert Nuttal, aged 11, is special - some would say backward. He is a poet and visionary who, as he grows into manhood, inspires unexpected depths of emotion in other people. This play, designed to be enacted entirely by adults comes from the author of "Straight and Narrow".

Is a man's Memorial Service the right time to tell the truth? Reunited for the occasion a group of friends gather to celebrate a life. But who are they remembering? A creative genius, a former lover, a bitter rival - or the man who deceived them all? A five-strong cast in a wickedly funny play full of revelations, rediscoveries and revenges.

“All the astronauts orbiting around the Earth, they’ll look down out of their little round windows and they’ll see me, standing onthe top floor of Vision Towers, huge and glowing”An oasis of free enterprise, no income taxes, no unions, no opposition parties. A paradise of consumption. A skyline on crack. Urban planning on steroids – Dubai.On the 88th  floor of an unfinished skyscraper in the Emirate’s glittering skyline, the life of a migrant labourer becomes fatefully intertwined with that of Jamie, a British expat with his eye on the big time.

Offering a glimpse at a slice of English history, this title includes the following songs - "The Grape and the Vine", "The Perfect Woman", "Kings and Clowns" and "Husbands and Wives".

Life-changing meetings can happen in the oddest of places: in this case, the vestry of a C of E church is the scene. Uptight, downtrodden Rachel, the vicar's wife, chats to recently-widowed Mr Purvis there and is rather cornered into offering him the post of the church's Health and Safety Officer. The consequences are unexpected.

A giant builds a high wall around his beautiful garden to prevent the children from playing in it. However, a valuable lesson is taught when the wall keeps the spring from returning and the garden remains in winter all year round. This is an adaptation of Oscar Wildes's short story.

A former racing car driver implicates his wife in a murder that he committed.  |3 women, 5 men

PONDLIFE Simon and Martin seem unlikely friends, but when Simon saves Martin from the aggressive and rather terrifying Sharon MacGuinness their fate is sealed and together they take on the world. However, one moment of indecision on a summer afternoon changes everything forever. A story of how hard it is to be brave when we are young and the moments we come to regret when we are old. KAPPA Kappa tells the story of one boy as he tries to find his place in a world that's falling apart. Set in an alternative universe where quantum games and knowledge of numbers opens the doors to multiple worlds and gives power to whoever can wield them Kappa finds himself part of a dangerous game that could lead to his own destruction. MIKEY & ADDIE Mikey is a dreamer. Addie is anything but. He walks about with his head in the stars, believing that his dad is up there somewhere, in space, working for NASA. However, when Addie shatters his dreams she starts to realize that with the truth comes responsibility and that, like it or not, she is going to have to do everything she can to help this boy. Even if it means breaking all the rules she holds dear.

"Children have been banned. By order of the king. No one is to have a child until the queen herself is pregnant. So when the queen's servant and best friend Rose finds herself with child it is up to the two of them to find a way out. Even if it means making a bargain with the dark forces of the forest. And so all is well with the world until the queen and Rose's secret pact comes back to haunt them and both their daughters are doomed to die on their 15th birthday. An imaginative rebooting of the original tale, The Sleeping Beauties is a story of friendship that spans a thousand years and asks what is true beauty in a world where looks are only skin deep and can so easily be replaced."--Back cover.

Written for London's Theatre Royal, Stratford East, this pantomime combines all the traditional elements with original characterizations, imaginative and innovative staging ideas and witty, melodic songs.-5 women, 7 men

Match Day! Blackton Rovers is in need of money. Owner, Austin Whitworth, sells his star centre-forward ΓÇô local football hero Jack Metherell ΓÇô to a rival club on the eve of a crucial match that could see Rovers relegated to the 2nd Division. Will honest Jack do AustinΓÇÖs bidding when asked to throw the match? Or will he put his professional honour above loyalty to his old club?AustinΓÇÖs daughter Elsie, and Jack, are in love ΓÇô or so they think. But Jack still lives at home, firmly tied to his motherΓÇÖs apron strings. Will ElsieΓÇÖs modern ways and feisty temperament win over his domineering mam? Or is this tryst between the classes doomed from the start?|5 women, 7 men