Dictionary Thesaurus Word Dynamo Quotes Reference Translator Spanish

Harold Brighouse

Harold Brighouse (July 26 1882, Eccles, Lancashire - July 25 1958, London) was an English playwright and author, one of the first exponents of realistic drama now referred to as the "Manchester school".

Life and career

The son of cotton spinner John Southworth Brighouse, he was born into a middle-class family, near Salford in Lancashire, the setting for his most popular play, Hobson's Choice. He obtained a scholarship to Manchester Grammar School, which he left aged seventeen, intending a career in the textile industry. He went to work for his father as an assistant buyer.

He became a prolific author of more than seventy plays, many of which are set in his native Lancashire and show in a comic way the attitudes and character of the working and trading people. He began by writing one-act plays, the first being produced at Miss Horniman's theatre in Manchester in 1909. Later he took up residence in Mecklenburgh Square, London, and frequented theatrical first nights which were to equip him so ably for his more mature plays and their use of stagecraft.

Following the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Brighouse was declared unfit for combat, but joined the new flying force called the Royal Flying Corps, which in 1918 became the RAF, and was seconded to the Air Ministry Intelligence Staff, where in his spare time he also produced his most famous play.

The four-act comedy, Hobson's Choice, has since become part of regular repertoires and was made into a film several times, especially the one in 1954, directed by David Lean and featuring John Mills and Charles Laughton. It was also adapted as a ballet for the Sadlers Wells Company.

He also made numerous literary contributions to the Manchester Guardian and other journals, largely on the subject of theatre.