Peter Whelan was one of the foremost playwrights of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. He began his career in advertising and short film scripting before starting to write for the stage. In 1996 he was appointed an Honorary Artistic Associate of the Royal Shakespeare Company. His numerous plays include The Accrington Pals, A Revolutionary Marriage, The Earthly Paradise, A Russian in the Woods, Overture, Divine Right, The Herbal Bed, Shakespeare Country and The School of Night.John Davey is Senior Lecturer in Performing Arts at West London University, where he leads the BA Theatre Production course. As well as having taught extensively at various levels, he is an experienced theatre director.

• Timeline: Peter WhelanIntroductionBackgroundHistorical ContextContemporary ContextUse of HistoryThemesDramatic DevicesProduction History and Critical ReceptionAcademic DebateFurther ReadingTHE ACCRINGTON PALSBibliographyGlossary

One of the best plays ever about the first world war . . . The strength of Whelan's play is that it captures . . the contradictions of the time . . . Whelan also has the natural dramatist's knack of expressing his ideas through purely theatrical means . . . For all the great poems, novels and movies produced by the first world war, nothing quite matches theatre for pulverising your emotions.