Bond achieved prominence, if not notoriety, with his socially critical plays of the 1960s and 70s. He learnt the craft and art of writing theatre at the Royal Court Theatre, London, under George Devine. There are several early plays which came out of the writers' group based here, which, along with John Arden, John Osborne, Ann Jellicoe and Arnold Wesker, Bond joined in 1960. Among these are The Pope's Wedding (1962) and Saved (1965). When this play was banned by the Lord Chamberlain's office, which had been approving – and censoring – new plays since 1737, the Royal Court theatre was turned into a club. Then, in 1968, the year of Narrow Road to the Deep North (about the Japanese poet, Basho) and Early Morning

This article in full comprises 1852 words but only the first 150 or so words are available to non-members.

All our articles have been written recently by experts in their field, more than 95% of them university professors. To read about membership, please click here.