Almost a Gentleman, 1955-1966

by John Osborne

Following on from Osborne's first autobiographical book, A Better Class of Person, this book looks at the period 1955 to 1966. It covers the foundation of the English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre to the death of his artistic director and Osborne's mentor, George Devine. At the Royal Court he experienced years of high theatrical achievement and low backstage comedy. For the playwright it was a decade of baffling and often ludicrous notoriety and of emotional and matrimonial upheaval. During this period Osborne wrote The Entertainer, Luther, A Portrait for Me and Inadmissible Evidence, was propositioned by Marlene Dietrich, spent the night in a Mexican brothel, consoled Vivien Leigh, grappled with the Lord Chamberlain in St James's Palace and won an Oscar.

Genres: Autobiography, Biography

304 pages, Paperback

Published March 28, 1992

About the author

People best know British playwright John James Osborne, member of the Angry Young Men, for his play Look Back in Anger (1956); vigorous social protest characterizes works of this group of English writers of the 1950s.

This screenwriter acted and criticized the Establishment. The stunning success of Look Back in Anger transformed English theatre. In a productive life of more than four decades, Osborne explored many themes and genres, writing for stage, film and television. His extravagant and iconoclastic personal life flourished. He notoriously used language of the ornate violence on behalf of the political causes that he supported and against his own family, including his wives and children, who nevertheless often gave as good as they got.

He came onto the theatrical scene at a time when British acting enjoyed a golden age, but most great plays came from the United States and France. The complexities of the postwar period blinded British plays. In the post-imperial age, Osborne of the writers first addressed purpose of Britain. He first questioned the point of the monarchy on a prominent public stage. During his peak from 1956 to 1966, he helped to make contempt an acceptable and then even cliched onstage emotion, argued for the cleansing wisdom of bad behavior and bad taste, and combined unsparing truthfulness with devastating wit.

Reviews

[Tosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A remarkable book on many accounts. At the time of this writing, I never read or seen any of his plays, but of course, know of him, mostly through his reputation as a political-cultural figure in the arts, as well as being part of the 'angry young men' grouping which may or may not actually exist. Still, he and others were one of the first ones to comment on their lives on the stage, and clearly a huge difference from the world of Noel Coward, who dominated the London stage before him. His memoir "Almost a Gentleman" is a hard book to put down. Mostly due to his character which is full of poison and wit. He captures the theater and somewhat of the film world during the years 1955 - 1966 very well. Of course all under his impression of that landscape. This is volume 2 of his memoir, and I don't know if there is a volume 3 somewhere on this planet, but will clearly read volume one. But I suspect that this particular volume is more of a greater interest to the general public because it deals with him being on the height of his fame. A remarkable figure, but not always in the positive sense.

[Ian · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not as good as Part One. I enjoyed his early life story much more than this. Finished it for the sake of it. Got really dissatisfied about half way through.

[Sitatunga · Rating 4 out of 5]

It ends with a whimper not a bang, after what has been a roller coaster ride of vituperation and venom, an excoriating harangue against everyone and everything, from family to close friends and colleagues to .... the Whole of England. With a few notable exceptions. He loved neither wisely and nor too well, whether through self-loathing or self-regard will remain an enigma. The story was riveting, not because of the poor boy made good cliche but to the extent that the trajectory - from the inner SW suburbs of London to the South Coast, touching places north - the people he met and admired (there were some), books he read .... mirrored my own.

[Arnold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part Two of the unputdownable autobiography of England's original Angry Young Man dramatist