Priestley, J(ohn) B(oynton)

English novelist and dramatist. His best-known plays are the mysterious and puzzling An Inspector Calls (1945) and The Linden Tree (1948), a study of post-war social issues. Priestley had a gift for family comedy, which is seen in When We Are Married (1938). He was also known for his wartime BBC broadcasts and literary criticism, such as Literature and Western Man (1960). He was a stern critic of the social effects of 20th-century modernization, and in his work he fondly reflects his youth in Edwardian Yorkshire.

Priestley was born in Bradford and educated at Cambridge University. He served with the Devonshire Regiment during World War I and afterwards worked in London as a reviewer and critic. After publishing two novels, Adam in Moonshine (1927) and Benighted (1927), he scored a noteworthy success with The Good Companions (1929), about travelling theatre. He followed it with a realist novel about London life, Angel Pavement (1930). His career as a dramatist began with Dangerous Corner (1932), one of several plays in which time is a preoccupation.