Harold Brighouse
Harold Brighouse | |
|---|---|
| Born | 26 July 1882 Eccles, Lancashire, England |
| Died | 25 July 1958 (aged 75) London, England |
| Occupation | Playwright, author |
| Nationality | British |
| Genre | Manchester School |
| Spouse | Emily Lynes |
Harold Brighouse (26 July 1882 – 25 July 1958) was an English playwright and author whose best known play is Hobson's Choice. He was a prominent member, together with Allan Monkhouse and Stanley Houghton, of a group known as the Manchester School of dramatists.[1]
Early life
Harold Brighouse was born in Eccles, Lancashire, the eldest child of John Southworth Brighouse, a manager for a cotton-spinning business, and Charlotte Amelia née Harrison, a headmistress. Harold attended a local school, then won a scholarship to Manchester Grammar School. He quit school aged 17 and started work as a textile buyer in a shipping merchant's office. In 1902 he went to London to establish an office for his company. There he met Emily Lynes and married her in Lillington, Leamington Spa in 1907. He was promoted at work and returned to Manchester, but in 1908 he became a full-time writer.[2]
Writing career
The first play written by Brighouse was Lonesome Like, but the first to be produced was The Doorway. This was performed in 1909 at
Brighouse also wrote novels, including Hepplestalls, concerning a Lancashire mill-owning family during the 19th century. Additionally, he wrote many reviews and other pieces for the
Other activities and later life
During the First World War, Brighouse was declared unfit for combat, but joined what later became the Royal Air Force, and was seconded to the Air Ministry Intelligence Staff, where in his spare time he wrote Hobson's Choice.[3] In 1919 he relocated to Hampstead, London. In 1958 he collapsed in the Strand and died the next day in Charing Cross Hospital. His estate amounted to slightly less than £14,500.[2]
Bibliography
Selected plays
- The Doorway (1909)
- Lonesome-Like (1911), later a 1954 television movie.[4]
- The Scaring Off Of Teddy Dawson (1911)
- The Oak Settle (1911)
- The Polygon (1911)
- The Price Of Coal (1911)
- The Odd Man Out (1912)
- Spring In Bloomsbury (1912)
- Graft (1913)
- Dealing In Futures (1913)
- The Game (1914)
- The Northerners (1914)
- Garside's Career (1915)
- The Followers (1915), later a 1939 television movie of the play with Austin Trevor, Marjorie Mars, Marjorie Lane.[5]
- Hobson's Choice (1916)
- Maid Of France (1917)
- Zack (1920)
- Converts (1920)
- Plays for the Meadow and Plays for the Lawn (1921)
- Once A Hero (1922)
- Little Red Shoes (1925)
- The Prince Who Was A Piper (1926)
- Six Fantasies (1931)
- The Dye-Hard (1934)
- The Inner Man (1945)
Novels
- Fossie For Short (1917)
- The Silver Lining (1918)
- The Marbeck Inn (1920)
- Hepplestall's (1922)
- The Wrong Shadow (1923)
Other works
- What I Have Had (1953), autobiography
References
- ^ Harding, John, Staging Life: The Story of the Manchester Playwrights (Greenwich Exchange 2018) https://greenex.co.uk/
- ^ doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/57105. Retrieved 3 August 2013. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) ((subscription or UK public library membershiprequired))
- ^ "Zack". The Actors Company Theatre. Archived from the original on 9 May 2008. Retrieved 23 November 2008.
- ^ "Lonesome Like (TV Movie 1954)" – via wIMDB.
- ^ "The Followers (TV Movie 1939) - IMDb". Retrieved 15 April 2023 – via www.imdb.com.
External links
- Works by Harold Brighouse at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Harold Brighouse at Internet Archive
- Works by Harold Brighouse at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Plays by Harold Brighouse on Great War Theatre
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