J.B. Priestley: Portrait of an Author

Susan Cooper paints a delightful and perceptive portrait of that benevolent giant of the literary world, J. B. Priestley. She traces the events which have influenced Priestley's work, from his youth in Bradford before the First War, and the ideas and feelings - his love of England, his powerful social conscience, his haunting obsession with Time - which permeate his books and plays. Priestley emerges as a man of humour and humanity, wit and wisdom. It is also a portrait of the author through his writings - and the extracts Susan Cooper uses from them are testimony to the breadth of Priestley's craft, the depth of his vision.