A Better Class of Person

After Watch It Come Down (1976), the latest of several plays of his to have a hostile reception, Osborne had no new work performed in the theatre for sixteen years.[3][4] In the late 1970s, he had also been through an acrimonious divorce from his fourth wife, actress Jill Bennett. During this period his fifth wife, Helen Dawson, encouraged him to write an autobiography.[5] A restraining order limited what Osborne could write about Bennett, but he nonetheless comments at one point, about a childhood crush who enjoyed humiliating him, "Such glee in the discomfort of others is one of the many contemptible aspects of childhood. I have encountered it in some adults and once, most overbearingly, in marriage."[6][7]

Playwright Alan Bennett, assessing the work for the London Review of Books in 1981, suggested that the depiction of Osborne's mother was not entirely fair, but was positive in his appraisal overall and noted how many other critics had been as well: "It is immensely enjoyable, is written with great gusto and Osborne has had better notices for it than for any of his plays since Inadmissible Evidence."[8] Bennett's words echo those of John Lahr in The New York Times: "the best piece of writing Osborne has done since Inadmissible Evidence... A Better Class of Person takes its energy from looking backward to the source of his pain before fame softened him. In this first installment of his autobiography, Osborne rediscovers the daring and cheek which distinguished his early, good work."[9] Reviewing its sequel, Hilary Mantel wrote, "A Better Class of Person is written with the tautness and power of a well-organised novel."[2] Michael Billington, in an obituary of the author for The Guardian, and Michael Ratcliffe, in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, both state that his reputation is likely to rest on his two autobiographies as much as on his plays.[10][5] Bennett and Ratcliffe both make a comparison with Charles Dickens: "Osborne... seems to have had a childhood of Dickensian richness and oddity";[8] "Attempting matricide [in his portrayal of Nellie Beatrice], Osborne instead made a creature of whom Dickens would have been proud."[5]

As well as raising the issue of how fair the book is to Nellie Beatrice (and later commentators such as Blake Morrison would conclude that it is unfair), Bennett notes how vague the author often is with dates (including his own birthdate) and comments, "Osborne... had a bleak childhood (or would like us to think so)."[11][8] One of Osborne's statements, that he was expelled from school for hitting the headmaster, was later contradicted by a fellow pupil.[12][13][lower-alpha 1] In places the book contradicts itself: for example, Osborne claims that the reason for his Great Uncle Frank's shameful and sudden emigration to Canada was never spoken of within the family, then in the next chapter says that this was known to be embezzlement.[16]

The autobiography was preceded by a screenplay entitled Too Young to Fight, Too Old to Forget, which was filmed by Thames TV in July 1985 under the title A Better Class of Person. It was directed by Frank Cvitanovich, with Eileen Atkins and Alan Howard as Osborne's parents and Gary Capelin and Neil McPherson as Osborne. The television film was nominated for the Prix Italia.[17][18]