'A sympathetic and perceptive account of a fine writer at a critical moment in our cultural life' KEN LOACH

On 27 May 1958, A Taste of Honey opened in a small fringe theatre in London. Written by a nineteen-year-old bus driver's daughter from Salford, the play exposed a deeply polarised society in Britain, sparked press and political outrage and transformed its young author into an unexpected star. Shelagh Delaney's assertive female characters struck an immediate chord with working-class women who dreamed of more than just suburban housewifery, and her work and legacy would go on to inspire future generations of writers, musicians and artists.

This is the remarkable story of how a working-class teenager stormed theatreland, exploded old certainties about class, race, sex and taste, and blazed an incendiary new path in British culture.

'A riveting book' DAVID HARE

"Makes an unassailable case for [Delaney's] importance in British theatre history while showing how her posthumous reputation has been subtly slighted... splendid and illuminating" - Observer

"Selina Todd’s biography of Shelagh Delaney, Tastes of Honey, is great" - New Statesman

"In this subtle, thoughtful book, Selina Todd sets out to do more than simply retell Delaney’s rags-to-riches story… Instead Todd argues that Delaney offers a route to rethinking the ways in which women’s lives in the mid-20th century are routinely written up, especially by feminists" - Guardian

"Tastes of Honey illuminates the life of a woman of blazing talent" - The Times

"[A] vivid portrayal… As a social historian, Todd demonstrates the many factors, other than sheer talent and determination, that went into the “making” of Shelagh Delaney…she was part of the new wave of working-class talent that during the Fifties and Sixties transformed every area of creative life, from theatre and literature to art, music and fashion" - Daily Telegraph

"A clever, hopeful and cheering book…shocking and sobering on how working people have forcibly become divorced from the arts" - New Statesman

"Selina Todd’s portrait of the artist against the backdrop of her changing times pays a warmly illuminating tribute to Delaney's unique voice… Todd shows in jaw-dropping detail the depth of the hostility to Delaney and her unapologetic work" - The Arts Desk

"Delaney was a trailblazer... Tastes of Honey is a biography of a writer whose output has – at times – been overshadowed by distorted versions of her story. By carefully emphasizing the radical qualities of Delaney’s oeuvre, and challenging many of the clichés that make up the mythology, Selina Todd offers a more nuanced view" - Times Literary Supplement