A Taste of Honey

Grammar school dropout Shelagh Delaney was only seventeen years old when she started writing her first play, A Taste of Honey, a work that would propel her to literary superstardom by the time she reached her twenties. Set in 1950s Manchester, England, Delaney’s poignant and comic play tells the story of Jo, a shy adolescent chafing against the constraints of her working class life and the demands of her selfish, irresponsible mother Helen. When Helen abandons Jo to take up with a much younger man, Jo falls prey to the advances of an itinerant sailor and is left pregnant and alone. Determined not to be undone by her difficult circumstances, she creates her own sort of family with gay art student Geoffrey, who moves into Jo’s flat to help her prepare for the birth of her baby. The two settle into tentative peace and happiness–until Helen’s unexpected reappearance threatens to throw Jo’s life back into upheaval.