Anger and After: A Guide to the New British Drama

by John Russell Taylor

When it was first published in 1962, Anger and After was the first comprehensive study of the dramatic movement which began in 1956 with the staging of John Osborne's Look Back in Anger and has since brought forward such dramatists as Brendan Behan, Harold Pinter, N. F. Simpson, John Arden and Arnold Wesker. Thoroughly revised in 1969, this book remains important reading for theatre students in need of a comprehensive and authoritative guide to post-Osborne drama in Britain.

Genres: Nonfiction

382 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

John Russell Taylor was an English critic, author, and historian whose work shaped modern writing on film, theatre, and visual art. Educated at Jesus College, Cambridge, and the Courtauld Institute of Art, he emerged in the early 1960s as one of Britain’s most influential cultural commentators. He wrote on cinema for Sight and Sound and Monthly Film Bulletin, and became film critic of The Times, later serving for decades as its art critic.
Taylor authored landmark studies of British drama and cinema, as well as acclaimed biographies of figures such as Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Ingrid Bergman, Vivien Leigh, and Alec Guinness. His book Strangers in Paradise: The Hollywood Emigres 1933–1950 remains a key work on European artists in American film. After developing a close friendship with Alfred Hitchcock, he became the director’s authorised biographer.
From the early 1970s he also taught film at the University of Southern California, while contributing to major British and American publications. In addition to film and theatre, Taylor wrote extensively on modern and contemporary art, producing numerous monographs and broader studies. He also served on juries at major international film festivals and edited Films and Filming magazine for several years.

Reviews

[Jim Coyle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately, the book ends around 1964/5, so you don't get an appraisal of later Pinter Plays like 'The Homecoming' - his best or BETRAYAL. But the author is extremely lucid, describing the plays, the background of the Playwrights and shrewdly summing up who will last.

[Hana Tiro · Rating 4 out of 5]

a very good book about british drama in 60s. A bit on-going as if the author is listing the plays and authors and the plot, as if you should know all 300 of them by now