The Good Companions The Good Companions The Good Companions is a novel by the English author J. B. Priestley. Written in 1929 (in Deal, Kent), it focuses on the trials and tribulations of a concert party in England between World War I and World War II. It is arguably Priestley's most famous novel, and the work which established him as a national figure. It won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and was adapted twice into film. The novel is written in picaresque style, and opens with the middle aged, discontented Jess Oakroyd in the fictional Yorkshire town of Bruddersford. He opts to
The Good Companions there has been a reappraisal of this and other Priestley works: a new edition of "The Good Companions" appeared in October 2007 with a foreword by Dame Judi Dench, accompanying a reappraisal of the various versions by Ronald Harwood, André Previn and Alan Plater amongst others. Priestley collaborated with Edward Knoblock on a stage version of his novel, which opened at His Majesty's Theatre, London on 14 May 1931. It ran for nine months, with Edward Chapman, Edith Sharpe and John Gielgud in the cast. The first film version appeared hard on the heels of the play. Produced by Gaumont,