My Account
Log in Registration
All
Cart
Highlights
Fiction Books
Non-Fiction Books
Children's Books
Rare Books
Music
DVD & Blu-Ray
Video Games
Category
Wishlists
Cart
All
Free Shipping in Ireland
Trustpilot
Proud to be B-Corp

Tastes of Honey Professor Selina Todd

Tastes of Honey By Professor Selina Todd

Tastes of Honey by Professor Selina Todd

Reviews:
€15.99
Condition - Very Good
Out of stock
Very Good

Tastes of Honey Summary

Tastes of Honey: The Making of Shelagh Delaney and a Cultural Revolution by Professor Selina Todd

The ultimate insight into the ground-breaking, firebrand playwright who changed our cultural and social landscape and put working-class lives centre stage.

On 27 May 1958, A Taste of Honey opened in a small fringe theatre in London. Written by a nineteen-year-old bus drivers daughter from Salford, the play would blow Britain open and expose a deeply polarised society. It would also make its young author a star.

As Conservative Prime Minister Harold Macmillan was telling people they had never had it so good, A Taste of Honey illuminated the lives of the millions left to languish in Britains slums. Delaneys strong female characters teenager Jo and her single mother, Helen asserted that working-class women wanted more than suburban housewifery. The play provoked a barrage of press and political criticism, but was embraced by those whose lives had now been placed centre stage.

This is the story of how a working-class teenager stormed theatreland, and what happened next. Shelagh Delaneys life and work reveal why women of her generation were provoked to challenge the world theyd grown up in. Exploding old certainties about class, sex and taste, Delaney blazed a new path redefining what art could be and inspiring a new generation of writers, musicians and artists.


'Anyone who values what is best in British theatre and film will want to join Selina Todd as she digs deep into the brilliance of Delaneys work and her character. Its a riveting book' DAVID HARE

Tastes of Honey Reviews

Makes an unassailable case for [Delaney's] importance in British theatre history while showing how her posthumous reputation has been subtly slighted... splendid and illuminating -- Kate Kellaway * Observer *
Selina Todds biography of Shelagh Delaney, Tastes of Honey, is great -- Tracey Thorn * New Statesman *
In this subtle, thoughtful book, Selina Todd sets out to do more than simply retell Delaneys rags-to-riches story Instead Todd argues that Delaney offers a route to rethinking the ways in which womens lives in the mid-20th century are routinely written up, especially by feminists -- Kathryn Hughes * Guardian *
Shelagh Delaney keeps her mystery even from beyond the grave, but anyone who values what is best in British theatre and film will want to join Selina Todd as she digs deep into the brilliance of Delaneys work and her character. Its a riveting book -- David Hare
This is a sympathetic and perceptive account of a fine writer at a critical moment in our cultural life. Selina Todds enthusiasm for her subject is infectious and she captures precisely the spirit of the times. A lovely and enjoyable book -- Ken Loach
Tastes of Honey illuminates the life of a woman of blazing talent -- Celia Brayfield * The Times *
[A] vivid portrayal As a social historian, Todd demonstrates the many factors, other than sheer talent and determination, that went into the making of Shelagh Delaneyshe was part of the new wave of working-class talent that during the Fifties and Sixties transformed every area of creative life, from theatre and literature to art, music and fashion -- Michael Todd * Daily Telegraph *
A clever, hopeful and cheering bookshocking and sobering on how working people have forcibly become divorced from the arts -- Megan Nolan * New Statesman *
Selina Todds portrait of the artist against the backdrop of her changing times pays a warmly illuminating tribute to Delaney's unique voice Todd shows in jaw-dropping detail the depth of the hostility to Delaney and her unapologetic work -- Boyd Tonkin * The Arts Desk *
Delaney was a trailblazer... Tastes of Honey is a biography of a writer whose output has at times been overshadowed by distorted versions of her story. By carefully emphasizing the radical qualities of Delaneys oeuvre, and challenging many of the cliches that make up the mythology, Selina Todd offers a more nuanced view -- Anna Coatman * Times Literary Supplement *
Todd shows how Delaney anticipated the concerns of the Women's Liberation Movement of the 1970s, and reveals her continuing influence in the light of similar problems facing working-class women nowfascinating -- J A Hopkin * Prospect *
Todd presents a warm but balanced view of a woman who made her own choices. Her work benefits from excellent digging in the BBC archives and many detailed interviews -- Jad Adams * Literary Review *
Not just a terrific study of the life and work of an extraordinary talent but a bracing contextualisation of her in terms of class, culture, sex, youth, politics and the North. Selina Todds biography of Delaney is as tough, smart and lively as Shelagh herself -- Stuart Maconie
Sparky . . . captures what made that 1958 play [A Taste of Honey] an era-defining classic * Daily Telegraph *
A breezy, readable new biography Todds portrait is enlivened by anecdotes from friends and family she uses a polyphonic approachincluding many examples from other ordinary womens adjacent experiences -- Holly Williams * i *
I...hugely enjoyed Tastes of Honey, Selina Todds heroic attempt to do the impossible and explain the life and work of the mysterious Shelagh Delaney. Alongside Andrea Dunbar, Delaney was our most unexpected and gifted postwar playwright -- David Hare * New Statesman, *Books of the Year* *
[A] brilliant biography -- Steven Long * Crack *

About Professor Selina Todd

Selina Todd is Professor of Modern History at Oxford University. She grew up in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and was educated at Heaton Manor Comprehensive School and the Universities of Warwick and Sussex. She writes about class, inequality, working-class history, feminism and womens lives in modern Britain. Her book The People: The Rise and Fall of the Working Class 19102010 was a Sunday Times bestseller and was described by the Observer as A book we badly need. Based on the voices of working-class people themselves, it charted the history of ordinary workers, housewives, children and pensioners over the turbulent twentieth century.

Additional information

GOR009974445
9781784740825
1784740829
Tastes of Honey: The Making of Shelagh Delaney and a Cultural Revolution by Professor Selina Todd
Professor Selina Todd
Used - Very Good
Hardback
Vintage Publishing
2019-08-29
304
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Customer Reviews - Tastes of Honey