Starting on 5th June 1940, Priestley built up such a following that after a few months it was estimated that around 40 per cent of the adult population in Britain was listening to the programme. The publication of English Journey in 1934 emphasised Priestley's concern for social problems and the welfare of ordinary people.ĭuring the Second World War Priestley became a popular and influential broadcaster with his famous Postscripts that followed the nine o'clock news BBC Radio on Sunday evenings. He emerged, too, as a successful dramatist with such plays as Dangerous Corner (1932), Time and the Conways (1937), When We Are Married (1938) and An Inspector Calls (1947). His breakthrough came with the immensely popular novel The Good Companions, published in 1929, and Angel Pavement followed in 1930. His earliest books included The English Comic Characters (1925), The English Novel (1927), and English Humour (1928). Subsequently he found work as theatre reviewer with the Daily News, and also contributed to the Spectator, the Challenge and Nineteenth Century. When Priestley left the army he studied at Cambridge University, where he completed a degree in Modern History and Political Science. After being wounded in 1917 Priestley returned to England for six months then, after going back to the Western Front he suffered the consequences of a German gas attack, and, treated at Rouen, he was declared unfit for active service and was transferred to the Entertainers Section of the British Army. Following the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, Priestley joined the British Army, and was sent to France -in 1915 taking part in the Battle of Loos. 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.

I have been here before priestley