An Inspector Calls (Heinemann Plays For 14-16+)

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A girl has committed suicide and he talks to the family one by one, but in the same claustrophobic room, to find out what happened to her and why. His prolific output continued right up to his final years, and to the end he remained the great literary all-rounder.

John Boynton Priestley, the son of a schoolmaster, was born in Bradford in September 1894, and after schooling he worked for a time in the local wool trade. Into this haven of bourgeois comfort and security walks in Inspector Goole, unannounced, and goes about destroying it piece by piece.After the war Priestley continued his writing, and his work invariably provoked thought, and his views were always expressed in his blunt Yorkshire style. Only when we encounter the conversation again can we understand its depth, and how cleverly it is constructed.

The family is in a total shambles now: a son who has committed adultery and theft, a daughter whose engagement has ended the same day it started and a father in the hope of a knighthood, faced with public scandal and disgrace. The play sits quite well with several of the author's other plays, often referred to as his "Time" plays, of which the most famous are "Dangerous Corner", "Time and the Conways" and "I Have Been Here Before". Dies ist gleichzeitig ein Symbol dafür, dass es neben dem einen Beispiel Eva Smith beziehungsweise Daisy Renton noch unzählige weitere solcher Opfer ihrer Zeit gegeben hat.His favourite among his books was for many years the novel Bright Day, though he later said he had come to prefer The Image Men. Blood’ is a metaphor for pain and war, reminiscent of the inner battle any child reading the play has.

The Heinemann Plays series offers contemporary drama and classic plays in durable classroom editions.This gripping play offers a powerful commentary on society’s moral fabric and the consequences of our actions on others. I love books and movies set in confined space and where there is a lot of dialogue between characters. The story begins with the self-satisfied gathering of this greedy, insensitive and culpably unaware family being visited unexpectedly by a policeman. However it is firmly rooted in the English society life of the time, and thus is now considered to be a classic of "drawing room" theatre.