A Taste Of Honey

This volume includes a chronology of the playwright's life and work; an introduction giving the background to the play; a discussion of the various interpretations and photographs from stage productions The stage play was awarded the Foyle's New Play Award and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award The screenplay for the film version was awarded the British Film Academy award and the Robert Flaherty Award The play is a set text on the AQA Drama, EDEXCEL Drama and OCR Drama lists for 2007/8 50 years after first publication, the annual sales for A Taste of Honey are in excess of 1,000 copies

First issued by Methuen in 1959, this play was the first title in the "Modern plays" series aimed at the burgeoning readership of young theatregoer This title and five others are reissued, representing the range and vitality of the list of titles in print .A Taste of Honey became a sensational theatrical success when first produced in London by Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop company. It was made into a highly acclaimed film in 1961. The play is about the adolescent Jo and her relationships with those about her - her irresponsible, roving mother Helen and her mum's newly acquired drunken husband, the black sailor who leaves her pregnant and Geoffrey the homosexual art student who moves in to help with the baby. It is also about Jo's unshakeable optimism throughout her trials. This story of a mother and daughter relationship set in working class Manchester continues to enthral new generations of readers and audiences. Now established as a modern classic, this comic and poignant play by a then nineteen-year-old working-class Lancashire girl was praised at its London premiere in 1958 by Graham Greene as having "all the freshness of Mr Osborne's Look Back in Anger and a greater maturity."