by Alan Bennett
MS CRAIG: Sometimes.
DAD: You want to blame your Mam.
MAM: I have a young woman comes to see me. I think she must be a social worker. She’s quite pleasant but then, that’s what she’s paid for. She gets cross if I say it’s a home. But if it’s not a home, what is it?
MS CRAIG: Home for me at the moment is a little place on the edge of the moors, a farmhouse I’ve done up. It’s only forty minutes but it’s another world. I look down on everything. Leeds … it’s just a glow in the sky. I feel I’m ready to start now.
FABER CONTEMPORARY CLASSICS
The Faber contemporary Classics series
aims to provide a body of work, in collected form,
for all the Faber playwrights.
April de Angelis
Alan Ayckbourn
Alan Bennett
Steven Berkoff
Marina Carr
Martin Crimp
Nick Dear
Brian Friel
Athol Fugard
Trevor Griffiths
Christopher Hampton
David Hare
Tony Harrison
Ronald Harwood
Hanif Kureishi
Sharman Macdonald
Frank McGuinness
Richard Nelson
Sean O’Casey
John Osborne
Harold Pinter
Wallace Shawn
Sam Shepard
Tom Stoppard
Nick Ward
Timberlake Wertenbaker
Author biography
Alan Bennett first appeared on the stage in 1960 as one of the authors and performers of the revue Beyond the Fringe. His stage plays include Forty Years On, Getting On, Habeas Corpus, The Old Country and The Lady in the Van, and he has written many television plays, notably A Day Out, Sunset Across the Bay, A Woman of No Importance and the series of monologues Talking Heads. An adaptation of his television play, An Englishman Abroad, was paired with A Question of Attribution in the double-bill Single Spies, first produced at the National Theatre in 1988. This was followed in 1990 by his adaptation of The Wind in the Willows and in 1991 by The Madness of George III.
His most recent play, The History Boys, won the Evening Standard and Critics’ Circle awards for Best Play, The Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play, and The South Bank Award. Alan Bennett’s latest collection of prose, Untold Stories, was published in 2005 by Faber and Faber and Profile Books.
by the same author
PLAYS ONE
(Forty Years On, Getting On, Habeas Corpus, Enjoy)
PLAYS TWO
(Kafka’s Dick, The Insurance Man, The Old Country,
An Englishman Abroad, A Question of Attribution)
THE LADY IN THE VAN
OFFICE SUITE
THE MADNESS OF GEORGE III
THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS
THE HISTORY BOYS
television plays
ME, I’M AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF
(A Day Out, Sunset Across the Bay, A Visit from Miss Prothero,
Me, I’m Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Green Forms,
The Old Crowd, Afternoon Off)
ROLLING HOME
(One Fine Day, All Day on the Sands, Our Winnie,
Rolling Home, Marks, Say Something Happened,
Intensive Care)
TALKING HEADS
screenplays
A PRIVATE FUNCTION
(The Old Crowd, A Private Function, Prick Up Your Ears,
102 Boulevard Haussmann, The Madness of King George)
autobiography
THE LADY IN THE VAN
WRITING HOME
UNTOLD STORIES
fiction
THREE STORIES
(The Laying On of Hands, The Clothes They Stood Up In,
Father! Father! Burning Bright)
Copyright
This collection first published in 1991
as Forty Years On and Other Plays
by Faber and Faber Limited
Bloomsbury House
74–77 Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3 DA
Reissued as Alan Bennett: Plays One in 1996
This ebook edition first published in 2008
All rights reserved
This collection © Alan Bennett, 1996
Introduction © Alan Bennett, 1991
Forty Years On © Alan Bennett, 1969
Getting On © Alan Bennett, 1972
Habeus Corpus ©Alan Bennett, 1973
Enjoy © Alan Bennett, 1980
Alan Bennett is hereby identified as author of this work in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights whatsoever in this work, amateur or professional, are strictly reserved. Applications for permission for any use whatsoever including performance rights must be made in advance, prior to any such proposed use, to United Agents Ltd, 12-26 Lexington Street, London W1F 0LE. Amateur applications for permission to perform, etc, must be made in advance, before rehearsals begin, to Samuel French Ltd., 52 Fitzroy Street, London, W1P 6JR. No performance may be given unless a licence has first been obtained.
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
ISBN 978—0—571—24686—1 [epub edition]
