Alan Bennett became famous when Beyond the Fringe was performed in Edinburgh and London in the early 1960s. Afterwards, the talents of Jonathan Miller, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore seemed to eclipse his, but gradually and quietly he became the most productive and creative of them all: stage plays from Forty Years On to The Madness of George III; a string of touching and funny television plays; the Talking Heads series; poetry programmes on television and stage; film scripts, diaries and occasional journalism, including The Lady in the Van and culminating in his runaway success, Writing Home.In this first comprehensive study of Alan Bennett's writing, Daphne Turner, lecturer at Kingston University, considers his diverse body of work in relation to the man and his background.
