A unique British journalist, novelist, playwright, and essayist. Priestley's output was vast and varied - he wrote over one hundred novels, plays, and essays, and is best known as the author of the novel THE GOOD COMPANIONS (1929). A man of versatility, he was a patriot, cosmopolitan Yorkshire man, professional amateur, cultured Philistine, reactionary radical, and a common-sense spokesman for the ordinary man-in-the-street. Priestley refused both knighthood and peerage,
Priestley was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in the north of England. His father, Jonathan Priestley, was a prosperous schoolmaster; his mother died when he was an infant. Priestley attended Bradford Grammar School, but left his studies at the age of sixteen and worked as a junior clerk in a firm (1910-1914). In Bradford Priestley began to write poetry for his own pleasure and contribute articles to local and London papers. During WW I Priestley served with the Duke of Wellington's and Devon regiments, and survived the front lines in Flanders. From 1919 he studied literature, history and political science at Bradford and at Cambridge, receiving his B.A. in 1921. From 1922 he worked as a journalist in London, starting his career as an essayist and critic at various newspapers and periodicals, including the New Statesman. His first collection of essays, BRIEF DIVERSIONS, appeared in 1922.