[[image:Girlfriend_in_a_Coma.png|thumb|right|Delaney was featured twice on [[The Smiths|Smiths]] record sleeves, including this one for their 1987 single, "Girlfriend in a Coma."]]
'''Shelagh Delaney''' (born [[November 25]], [[1939]]), is a [[United Kingdom|British]] [[playwright]] of [[Ireland|Irish]] descent, best known for her debut work, ''A Taste Of Honey''.
Born in [[Salford]], [[Lancashire]], [[England]], she attended three primary schools, apparently enjoying the change from one to another. After failing the eleven-plus examination to qualify for grammar school, she moved on to Broughton Secondary School, where she saw her first stage production, an amateur performance of [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Othello]]''. She was twelve at the time and the play made a lasting impression.
Delaney proved to be a late developer, and she finally transferred to the local grammar school, where she had a record of fair achievement. She left school at seventeen for a succession of jobs in [[Salford]], which included shop assistant, milk-depot clerk, and usherette. Her driving ambition always was to write.
At age seventeen, Delaney began ''[[A Taste of Honey]]'' as a [[novel]] but soon realised that it would work better as a [[play]]. It focuses on a teen aged [[working-class]] girl who refuses to conform to her dreary surroundings. The play portrays the lives of typical workers in the north of England in an inventive way.
''A Taste of Honey'' was accepted by [[Joan Littlewood]], [[theatre director|artistic director]] of the [[Theatre Workshop]], who strongly believed that plays should be about ordinary people. It opened at the [[Theatre Royal Stratford East]] in [[London]] on [[May 27]], [[1958]], and on [[February 10]], [[1959]], transferred [[Wyndham's Theatre]] in the [[West End theatre|West End]], where it enjoyed a long run and won several awards. On [[October 4]], [[1960]], the play opened at [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]]'s [[Lyceum Theatre]] with a cast including [[Joan Plowright]], [[Angela Lansbury]], and [[Billy Dee Williams]].
Two years later, Shelagh co-wrote with director [[Tony Richardson]] the [[screenplay]] for the film version, which starred [[Rita Tushingham]] and [[Dora Bryan]] and won Delaney an [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]]. The film was one of the key films of the British New Wave of cinema in the [[Sixties]]. At the age of 23, Shelagh Delaney had become one of the most famous writers of her time.
She has penned a collection of [[short stories]] entitled ''Sweetly Sings the Donkey'', several television plays, including ''Did your Nanny Come from Bergen?'' (1970), and ''St Martin's Summer'' (1974), award-winning scripts such as ''Charley Bubbles'' and ''Dance with a Stranger'', and radio plays such as ''So Does the Nightingale'' (1980), but never has achieved the success she did with her first play.
Her works have formed the inspiration of several songs written by the British [[singer]]/[[songwriter]] [[Morrissey]], and she featured on the sleeves of the ''[[Louder Than Bombs]]'' [[album]] and ''[[Girlfriend in a Coma (song)|Girlfriend in a Coma]]'' [[single (music)|single]] by his band, [[The Smiths]].
==References and external links==
{{Reflist}}
*[http://www.peopleplayuk.org.uk/timelines/women.php?year=3&syear=5& Theatre Museum profile]
[[Category:1939 births|Delaney, Shelagh]]
[[Category:British dramatists and playwrights|Delaney, Shelagh]]
[[Category:Living people|Delaney, Shelagh]]
[[Category:People of Irish descent in Great Britain|Delaney, Shelagh]]
[[Category:People from Salford|Delaney, Shelagh]]
[[de:Shelagh Delaney]]
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