J. B. Priestley

Priestley was born in what he described as an ultra-respectable suburb of Bradford.After his military service Priestley received a university education at Trinity Hall, Cambridge.Priestley himself, however, was distrustful of the state and dogma.His father was a teacher and his mother died young.He was to draw on memories of Bradford in many of the works he wrote after he had moved south.He was wounded in 1916 by mortar fire.By the age of 30 he had established a reputation as a humorous writer and critic.His 1927 novel Benighted was adapted into the James Whale film The Old Dark House in 1932.His next novel Angel Pavement (1930) further established him as a successful novelist.He moved into a new genre and became as well known as a dramatist.