Sweetly Sings Delaney: A Study of Shelagh Delaney’s Work 1958-68

Shelagh Delaney rose to fame following the instant success in 1958 of her first play A Taste of Honey. Lauded as Britain’s answer to the controversial French novelist Francoise Sagan, Delaney’s work scandalised her home city of Salford but established her as one of the country’s most original and exhilarating young playwrights during a period in theatre history when women writers were rare and acceptance hard to achieve. Delaney has served as an inspiration to countless young artists down the succeeding years. Rock star Morrissey wrote, ‘She has always been a part of my life as a perfect example of how to get up and get out and do it.’ Novelist Jeanette Winterson claimed, ‘She was like a lighthouse - pointing the way and warning about the rocks underneath.’ Sweetly Sings Delaney is the story of her first exciting decade as a writer when she not only produced challenging and dramatic work in prose and on stage but also collaborated with some of the most innovative film and documentarymakers of the decade such as Ken Russell, Tony Richardson, Lindsay Anderson, not to mention actor and fellow Salfordian Albert Finney during his first and only foray as a film director.