John Boynton Priestley OM (/ˈpriːstli/; 13 September 1894 – 14 August 1984) was an English novelist, playwright, screenwriter, broadcaster and social commentator.

In 1940, he broadcast a series of short propaganda radio talks, which were credited with strengthening civilian morale during the Battle of Britain.

Priestley was born on 13 September 1894 at 34 Mannheim Road, Manningham, which he described as an "extremely respectable" suburb of Bradford.

[4] Priestley was educated at Belle Vue Grammar School, which he left at 16 to work as a junior clerk at Helm & Co. in the Swan Arcade.

Priestley served in the British Army during the First World War, volunteering for the Duke of Wellington's Regiment on 7 September 1914 and being posted to the 10th Battalion in France as a Lance-Corporal on 26 August 1915.

As he describes in his literary reminiscences, Margin Released, he suffered from the effects of poison gas and then supervised German prisoners of war before being demobilised in early 1919.

After his military service Priestley received a university education at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he was among the first cohort of students to study the newly founded English Tripos; transferring to History for Part II, he was awarded an upper-second class degree in 1921.

Priestley's first major success came with a novel, The Good Companions (1929), which earned him the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction and made him a national figure.

However some critics were less than complimentary about his work and Priestley threatened legal action against Graham Greene for what he took to be a defamatory portrait of him in the novel Stamboul Train (1932).

[8] Priestley is today seen as having a prejudice against the Irish,[9][10][11] as is shown in English Journey: "A great many speeches have been made and books written on the subject of what England has done to Ireland...

I should be interested to hear a speech and read a book or two on the subject of what Ireland has done to England... if we do have an Irish Republic as our neighbour, and it is found possible to return her exiled citizens, what a grand clearance there will be in all the western ports, from the Clyde to Cardiff, what a fine exit of ignorance and dirt and drunkenness and disease.

In the book he explored in depth various theories and beliefs about time as well as his own research and unique conclusions, including an analysis of the phenomenon of precognitive dreaming, based in part on a broad sampling of experiences gathered from the British public, who responded enthusiastically to a televised appeal he made while being interviewed in 1963 on the BBC programme Monitor.

His book Trumpets Over the Sea is subtitled "a rambling and egotistical account of the London Symphony Orchestra's engagement at Daytona Beach, Florida, in July–August 1967".

[23] In 1941, he played an important part in organising and supporting a fund-raising campaign on behalf of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, which was struggling to establish itself as a self-governing body after the withdrawal of Sir Thomas Beecham.

Writing in 1972, Priestley described himself as "lusty" and as one who has "enjoyed the physical relations with the sexes [...] without the feelings of guilt which seems to disturb some of my distinguished colleagues".

[30] In 1953, Priestley was divorced by his second wife and then married the archaeologist and writer Jacquetta Hawkes, with whom he collaborated on the play Dragon's Mouth.

[citation needed] Priestley began placing his papers at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin in 1960, with additions being made throughout his lifetime.

The collection includes scripts, journal articles, lectures, press cuttings, correspondence, photographs and objects such as Priestley's iconic pipe.