Shelagh Delaney once said that “for a writer, Salford is worth its weight in gold, the people who live here have a terrific vitality and the place is alive.”
If Delaney was at all fortunate to have the purest representation of working-class Britain accessible from her doorstep in Broughton, Salford was lucky to have birthed a genius playwright able to imagine her environment in one of the defining plays of the 1950s working-class and feminist cultural movements.
To the woman best known for writing A Taste of Honey, the play which captured the lives of people living in the city’s decrepit back-to-back houses, who wandered through the cobbled streets, along the banks of the litter-strewn canals and drank in run-down boozers, Salford was “like a terrible drug.”
A Taste of Honey follows a young girl named Jo, who lives in a run-down Salford flat with her alcoholic single mother, Helen. The 15-year-old becomes pregnant by a black sailor and is cared for by her gay friend, Geoffrey, who assumes the role of surrogate father, until he is banished by Helen, leaving Jo’s life in limbo.
It was controversial at the time of its release for breaking taboos and explicitly addressing approaches to homosexuality and racism and became one of the leading ‘kitchen sink dramas’, where artists brought into focus the everyday experiences of working-class characters in gritty post-war Britain.
Delaney won a Bafta in 1962 for Best British Screenplay for her film adaptation of A Taste of Honey, but had to withstand fierce backlash for daring to tackle social issues head-on.
No matter how far the success of the play carried her across Europe to Sweden and France, a ‘homesickness’ caused by her affinity with the city meant she would gravitate back home.
Delaney originally intended it to be a novel, but turned Taste Of Honey into a play to bring social issues unrepresented by British theatre’s ruling middle class to the forefront of public consciousness.
Roni Ellis, Artistic Director at Salford Arts Theatre, explained that “Shelagh Delaney was part of a cultural shift in British theatre.
“At just 19, she wrote A Taste of Honey, bringing working-class life to the stage with honesty, humour and compassion. Her writing explored subjects rarely seen in theatre at the time – poverty, race, gender, motherhood and identity – giving voice to communities often overlooked.
“Born and raised in Salford, Delaney’s voice emerged directly from the streets and lives around her. Her work was championed by Theatre Workshop, whose roots began in Salford through the work of Joan Littlewood and Ewan MacColl. Together they helped shape a new kind of theatre – bold, socially conscious and rooted in real communities.
“Delaney’s fearless storytelling remains a powerful reminder that some of the most important voices in theatre come from communities like our own, and her influence continues to inspire generations of writers and audiences alike.”
Delaney was born on 25 November 1938 in Broughton to Joseph Delaney, an Irish bus inspector and former Lancashire Fusilier, and Elsie Tremlow. As a youngster, she regularly went to the Salford Hippodrome Theatre on Cross Lane and attended three primary schools before failing the 11-plus and attending Broughton Modern Secondary School.
It was there that the headteacher encouraged her to watch the school production of Othello. By the age of 12, Delaney had already realised she was a more talented writer than many of her classmates. Her enthusiasm for drama was growing as her interest in schoolwork began to fade. After three attempts to transfer to the local grammar school, she gained a place at 15.
With little interest in becoming a teacher, she left school at 17 to take up jobs as a clerk in a milk depot, a shop assistant, an usherette at Manchester Opera House and a worker in the research photography department of the electrical engineering company Metropolitan-Vickers.
After seeing Terence Rattigan’s Variation on a Theme, Delaney thought she could create a better show and took two weeks off to write A Taste of Honey.
Her groundbreaking play was first performed on 27 May 1958 and went on an incredible run in London’s West End and on Broadway.
Following the success of A Taste of Honey, Delaney left Salford at 19 to live in London and would not return to live in Salford again. But her love affair with the city never waned and she would come back and visit her family regularly, later ensuring her daughter spent her school holidays there.
According to Author Selina Todd, who wrote a book about memorialising the story of one of the City’s great working-class heroes, Delaney’s most famous work was “a real Salford gem.”
“One of the things I love about Shelagh’s work is that she makes no excuses about putting women at the centre of the action. They’re not heroes, they’re not martyrs, they are just spirited people trying to get on with their lives.”
Delaney died of cancer at the age of 71, but the impact of her work lives on. Todd explained that, through Delaney’s writing, the Salford spirit will forever be attached to one of the seminal plays.
“What really comes through is the Salford humour, and the sense of spirit and determination to survive against the odds,” she said.
