Shelagh Delaney

This portraitback to top

Farson photographed the young playwright outside her house in Salford a year after her debut A Taste of Honey (1958) had premiered at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East and during its transfer to the West End. The film (1961), which Delaney scripted with Tony Richardson, starring Rita Tushingham, won four Baftas. Her second play The Lion in Love, which also took inspiration from her working class upbringing, was staged at the Royal Court in 1960. Delaney's defiance of social and sexual convention and her humorous female viewpoint brought a new voice to the British stage.

Events of 1959back to top

Current affairs

Harold Macmillan wins the general election with an increased majority, returning to office as Conservative prime minister. The victory was the result of perceived economic improvement under the Conservative government, and his (misquoted) boast: 'you've never had it so good.' During his premiership he earned the nickname 'Supermac', coined by cartoonist, Victor 'Vicky' Weisz.

Art and science

Claudia Jones organises the first West Indian-style carnival in the country, starting the tradition of the annual Notting Hill carnival. The event was a response to the race riots of 1958, and an attempt to celebrate West Indian culture and help overcome racial prejudice by giving the whole community the opportunity to join in the event.

International

Fidel Castro becomes leader of Cuba. After defeating the American-backed Batista government, Castro's revolutionary army arrived in Havana on 8th January where Castro proclaimed himself Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Within a month, Prime Minister José Miró Cardona had resigned, and Castro took over.
In Tibet, an uprising against Chinese rule is brutally crushed, and the Dalai Lama flees to India, beginning his long exile.

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