Untold Stories

Alan Bennett

Untold Stories is Alan Bennett’s first collection of prose since Writing Home and takes in all his major writings over the last ten years. The title piece is a poignant family memoir with an account of the marriage of his parents, the lives and deaths of his aunts and the uncovering of a long-held family secret. Also included are his much-celebrated diaries for the years 1996-2004, as well as essays, reviews, lectures and reminiscences ranging from childhood trips to the local cinema and a tour around Leeds City Art Gallery to reflections on writing, honours and his Westminster Abbey eulogy for Thora Hird. At times heartrending and at others extremely funny, Untold Stories is an unforgettable anthology.

First published:: 2005
Published by:: Faber & Faber / Profile
Length:: Hardcover 658 pages

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About the author

Alan Bennett was born in Leeds in May 1934. Bennett has been one of our leading dramatists since the success of Beyond the Fringe in the 1960s. His television series Talking Heads has become a modern-day classic, as have many of his works for the stage, including Forty Years On, The Lady in the Van, A Question of Attribution, The Madness of George III (together with the Oscar-nominated screenplay The Madness of King George) and an adaptation of The Wind in the Willows. 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. He divides his time between London and Yorkshire.