Annie Horniman Annie Horniman Annie Elizabeth Fredericka Horniman CH (3 October 1860 – 6 August 1937) was an English theatre patron and manager. She established the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and founded the first regional repertory theatre company in Britain at the Gaiety Theatre in Manchester. She encouraged the work of new writers and playwrights, including W. B. Yeats, George Bernard Shaw and members of what became known as the Manchester School of dramatists. Annie Horniman was born at Surrey Mount, Forest Hill, London, in 1860, the elder child of Frederick John Horniman and his first wife Rebekah née Elmslie. Her father
J. B. Priestley ignorance and dirt and drunkenness and disease." He moved into a new genre and became equally well known as a dramatist. "Dangerous Corner" (1932) was the first of many plays that would enthrall West End theatre audiences. His best-known play is "An Inspector Calls" (1945). His plays are more varied in tone than the novels, several being influenced by J. W. Dunne's theory of time, which plays a part in the plots of "Dangerous Corner" (1932) and "Time and the Conways". In 1940, Priestley wrote an essay for "Horizon" magazine, where he criticised George Bernard Shaw for his support of