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Margin Released
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Margin Released (1962) is a book of reminiscences by novelist and playwright J.B. Priestley, giving an account of his literary career. It consists of three parts, divided into three periods of his life: as a teenage clerk in Bradford, Yorkshire; as a soldier in the 1914-18 war; and as a full-time author from when he came to work in London. Part One (The Swan Arcadian) takes its name from Swan Arcade, Bradford, where he first worked for a firm of wool-sorters. It explores the roots of his literary development, much influenced by his father, a puritan educationalist, and flavoured by the social scenery of a long-established West Riding manufacturing town. By eighteen, he is writing articles for local and national publications, as well as experimenting with poetry. Part Two (Carry on, Carry on!) recounts his service in the ranks of the infantry on the Western Front, where he was wounded and evacuated, before returning briefly to France as a subaltern, where he was gassed and transferred to a job behind the lines. He debated whether to feature this period at all, as it involved almost no writing, but decided that his work would be understood better in the light of it. Part Three (I Had the Time) chronicles his professional writing life, divided-up according to the various media in which he worked - essays and criticism, fiction, drama, radio, film and TV. He explains how his works came to be written, analysing methods of literary production, and describing his meetings with authors such as Shaw, Wells and Bennett. 
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