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A Taste of Honey
Series: Student Editions
Brief Description
A Taste of Honey, Shelagh Delaney's 1958 play, was written when she was only 19 years old. It brought the lives and struggles of northern, working-class people onto the stage. Initially dividing the critics—some of whom regarded it as 'immature'—it went on to become one of...
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A Taste of Honey
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This Student Edition of Shelagh Delaney's 1958 plays offers a contemporary lens on the play and its then-radical exploration of themes including class, race, gender and homosexuality.
This Student Edition of Shelagh Delaney's 1958 plays offers a contemporary lens on the play and its then-radical exploration of themes including class, race, gender and homosexuality.
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Description
A Taste of Honey, Shelagh Delaney's 1958 play, was written when she was only 19 years old. It brought the lives and struggles of northern, working-class people onto the stage. Initially dividing the critics—some of whom regarded it as 'immature'—it went on to become one of the most defining plays of the twentieth century.
This Student Edition contains a commentary by Hannah Simpson, Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, UK. It explores various themes in relation to the play:
- gender roles
- homosexuality
- race
- class
- youth
- 1950s notions of family
In addition, it examines the play's production history, different ways it has been staged, and its critical reception. The analysis also delves into the form of kitchen-sink and drawing-room drama, questioning to what extent the play conforms to or disrupts these models, while providing a snapshot of 1950s Britain and the play's ambiguous ending.
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Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781350443662
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 21 August 2025
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Methuen Drama
Edition: 4th edition
Contributors:
- Volume editor Hannah Simpson
Audience: Tertiary education
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 16.0mm
Width: 128.0mm
Height: 196.0mm
Weight: 129g
Pages: 136
About the Author
Shelagh Delaney (1938 - 2011) was born in Salford, Lancashire, in 1938. She is most well-known for A Taste of Honey (1958), for which she won the Foyle's New Play Award and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award. She wrote the screenplay for the film version with Tony Richardson and received the British Film Academy Award and the Robert Flaherty Award. Her other screenplays include The White Bus and Charley Bubbles, for which she won the Writers' Guild Award. She also wrote for television and radio and published a collection of short stories. She died in 2011.
Hannah Simpson is Lecturer in Drama and Performance in the English Faculty at the University of Edinburgh, UK. She is the author of Samuel Beckett and the Theatre of the Witness: Pain in Post-War Francophone Drama (2022) and Samuel Beckett and Disability Performance (2022). She has edited special issues for Twentieth Century Literature, Medical Humanities and the Journal of War and Culture Studies, and is co-editor of the Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Disability book series.
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