Jonathan Harvey's most popular plays collected in one volume for the first time.Contains the smash hit plays Beautiful Thing - a bittersweet tale of the joys and trials of living cheek-by-jowl in a Thamesmead housing estate; Babies - based on the playwright's experiences as a teacher which was 'mercilessly robbed from a particular night when I arrived at a pupil's birthday party to be entertained by a drag queen dressed as the Queen'; The Rupert Street Lonely ...

Teenage boys Ste and Jamie are neighbours on a South London estate. Jamie is more knowledgeable about The Sound of Music than football, while classmate Ste never misses a sports day. Both are being bullied, Jamie at school and Ste at home by his violent father and brother.One night, when things get too much, Ste seeks refuge in Jamie's flat and, sharing a bed, the boys strike up a new relationship. Together they come to terms with their sexuality and explore their feelings...

It's no secret that Sylvie is unravelling. Frozen in time in her Blundellsands house, she inhabits a fantasy world that never was. Garnet, her sister, is older and wiser – and wearier, with her shopping lists and tired love. She's always fanned the flames of Sylvie's fantasies. Because if she didn't… who knows where they'd both end up?But now the whole family's up in Liverpool for a birthday, and Garnet's got a secret of her own to pass on. There'll be a party… but it's not going t...

Inspired by the author’s personal experience of sustaining acquired brain injury (ABI), this path-breaking book explores the (re)construction of identity after ABI. It offers a way of understanding ABI through a social scientific lens, promoting an understanding that is generated through close engagement with the lives and experiences of ABI survivors.The author follows the everyday experiences of six male survivors and critically investigates their identity (re)construction after ...

Winner of the George Devine Award in 1993, Babies premiered at the Royal Court theatre, London in September 1994Liverpudlian Joe Casey is twenty-four, gay and a form tutor at a south-east London comprehensive. Joe's life is spliced between the drug-using excesses of his lover Woodie and the advances of his female pupils (and their mothers). A warm and funny comedy by the author of the 1993 hit Beautiful Thing.

Filled with Jonathan Harvey's trademark wit, warmth and outrageous humour, The History of Us is a novel about friendship and secrets, the choices we make and the consequences we face.'I knew Jonathan Harvey could make me laugh. I didn't expect him to make me cry too' – Jojo Moye, author of Me Before YouLiverpool 1985Kathleen, Adam and Jocelyn are three teenage friends who bond over an unconventional...

Drawing together the work of ten leading playwrights – a mixture of established and current writers – National Theatre Connections 2013 offers young performers between the ages of thirteen and nineteen everywhere an engaging selection of plays to perform, read or study.Each play is specifically commissioned by the National Theatre's literary department and reflects the past year's programming at the venue in the plays' ideas, themes and styles. The plays are performed by a...

A new collection of the latest plays from the writer of Beautiful Thing and TV's Gimme, Gimme, Gimme"JONATHAN HARVEY has an athletic and fantastical imagination, bawdy, funny and joyously blasphemous" Sunday TimesGUIDING STAR: "Dry, funny, truthful, the writing buzzes with graceful perception and Scouse sarcasm...one of the best new plays of the year" Daily MailHUSHABYE MOUNTAIN: "You would have to have a heart hewn from granite not to respond warmly to Jonathan Har...

**All She Wants is a laugh out loud story about a Liverpool girl who becomes a famous soap star, by Coronation Street scriptwriter Jonathan Harvey.'A mad-cap, laugh-out-loud roller coaster of a ride . . . with an unexpectedly tender sting in the tail.' - Marian Keyes, author of The Break**There are some things in life you can always rely on. Living in the shadow of your ‘perfect’ brother Joey, getting the flu over Christmas, and your Mother showin...

**The Confusion of Karen Carpenter, a book that will make you laugh and cry, is by Coronation Street scriptwriter Jonathan Harvey.'It's a total page-turner, very entertaining, then very moving.' – Marian Keyes, ahuthor of Grown Ups**Hello. There are two things you should know about me:My name is Karen Carpenter.Just before Christmas my boyfriend left me.I’m not THE Karen Carpenter. I just ha...

Rachel and Shirley. Two women from different decades but somehow their lives are entwined, and neither can know the impact one woman will have on the other until it’s way too late . . .2017Pregnant Rachel Taylor is enjoying a holiday in Morocco when she gets the phone call to say her mother hasn’t got much time left to live. With a head of mixed emotions she returns to the village where she grew up to say her last goodbyes. It’s true to say ...

Told from the point of view of four family members, The Secrets We Keep, by Coronation Street scriptwriter Jonathan Harvey, is a funny and poignant story.It's hard being that woman, the one whose husband disappeared. It's made me quite famous. I just wish it was for something else.He went out five years ago for a pint of milk and never came back. So here I am with a daughter who blames me for all that's wrong in t...