J.B. Priestley the son of a schoolmaster was born in Bradford in 1894. After leaving Belle
Vue High School he spent some time as a junior clerk in a wool office. (A lively account of
his life at this period may be found in his volume of reminiscences Margin Released.) He
joined the army in 1914 and in 1919 on receiving an ox-officers¿ grant went to Trinity Hall
Cambridge. In 1922 after refusing several academic posts and having already published one
book and contributed critical articles and essays to various reviews he went to London. There
he soon made a reputation as an essayist and critic. he began writing novels and with his
third and fourth novels The Good Companions and Angel Pavement he scored a great success and
established an international reputation. This was enlarged by the plays he wrote in the 1930s
and 1940s some of these notably Dangerous Corner Time and the Conways and An Inspector Calls
having been translated and produced all over the world. During the Second World War he was
exceedingly popular as a broadcaster. Since the war his most important novels have been Bright
Day Festival at Farbridge Lost Empires and The Image Men and his more ambitious literary and
social criticism can be found in Literature and Western Man Man and Time and Journey Down a
Rainbow which he wrote with his wife Jacquetta Hawkes a distinguished archaeologist and a
well-established writer herself. It was in this last book that Priestley coined the term
¿Admass¿ now in common use. Among his latest books are Victoria¿s Heydey (1972) Over the Long
High Wall (1972) The English (1973) Outcries and Asides a collection of essays (1974) A
Visit to New Zealand (1974) The Carfitt Crisis (1975) Particular Pleasures (1975) Found
Lost Found or the English Way of Life (1976) The Happy Dream (1976) English Humour (1976)
and an autobiography Instead of the Trees (1977). In 1977 J. B. Priestley received the Order
of merit. He died in 1984.
