‘I dreamt about you last night, and I fell out of bed twice!’
Fans of the band ‘The Smiths’ will recognise this as a line from their music and yet it was directly lifted from ‘A Taste of Honey’ – a fantastically titled, comic, tragic play written by a young working class playwright, Shelagh Delaney.
She was just 19 when the play premiered in 1958. It instantly became a classic, with a film to follow.
Daringly liberal for the times, it follows the fortunes of a young woman who becomes pregnant after a one night stand. Poverty, sexuality, race and class, are all tackled with great wit and freshness. With the confidence of youth, Delaney was unafraid to show life as it was really lived.
The following clip shows the impact of her work on the singer and lyricist Morrissey and includes a clip from the memorable film adaptation:
