J.B. Priestley was one of the finest and most popular storytellers of the twentieth century as well as one of its most perceptive social commentators. He entertained millions and in the process provided readers and listeners with a challenging radical message of how society and the lives of ordinary citizens could be improved. In the darkest hours of the Second World War, his radio broadcasts, novels and journalism made him second in importance only to Churchill and he gave the nation what other leaders failed to give, an ideology of a better and more humane world.
The power of his narratives, plays and non-fiction have been enriched and strengthened by time as is shown by the phenomenal success of An Inspector Calls on stage and with the BBC. His stories take the reader into a world of adventure, rich in humour, warmth and optimism. His non-fiction, written in wonderfully lucid prose alternately praises the simple pleasures of life as well as casting critical shadows over all he sees as wrong. His work, in all forms, traces everything that makes up what he described as “the lovely thickness of life” and does so with a seemingly endless concern and compassion for the human condition.