The Go-Between experience. Among other writers commenting on the book's contemporary context, Paul Binding has pointed out that its famous opening phrase, “The past is a foreign country”, had first been used by Hartley’s friend Lord David Cecil in his inaugural lecture as Goldsmith's Professor in 1949. Ali Smith revisited the observed parallel drawn between the treatment of class and sexuality in "The Go-Between" and in "Lady Chatterley's Lover" (1928). D. H. Lawrence’s novel was not allowed unexpurgated circulation in Britain until after "The Go-Between"s appearance, but perhaps, she speculated, Hartley's novel helped prepare the climate for the overturning of the British
The Go-Between ban on Lawrence’s work seven years later. In 1960, an adaptation for stage by Louise F. Tanner was produced in Morgantown, West Virginia. Mrs. Tanner travelled to the United Kingdom to consult Hartley in person about the work. Playwright Harold Pinter adapted the novel into a screenplay of a film of the same name (1971), directed by Joseph Losey. A television adaptation starring Jim Broadbent was broadcast on BBC One on 20 September 2015. On 8 July 2012, a radio adaptation by Frances Byrnes and directed by Matt Thompson was broadcast on BBC Radio 3. The production was re-broadcast on