40th anniversary edition with a new introduction by Mike Leigh. Forty years on from its first performance at the Hampstead Theatre and original screening on BBC1 soon after, Mike Leigh's Abigail's Party - telling of two marriages spectacularly unravelling at an awkward neighbourhood drinks party - remains a pinnacle of British theatre. Here is the original script, complete with a new introduction by Mike Leigh describing the play's unlikely genesis, how it came to be made and where he believes it fits within his oeuvre as one of the country's leading writers and directors. 'The play came from...

Mike Leigh s 1970s classic play Abigail s Party focuses on an evening of domestic hell in the guise of a suburban drinks soiree. While teenager Abigail parties a few doors away, the pretentious Beverly and her estate agent husband, Laurence, entertain their neighbours Abigail s mother, Susan, ex-footballer, Tony, and his wife, Angela. But as the alcohol flows, tensions in the hosts barely functional marriage emerge and their obsessions, prejudices and petty competitiveness are ruthlessly, and hilariously, exposed. Goose-Pimples, meanwhile, is easily as sharp and uncompromising. This time, the...

The story of the Peterloo massacre, a defining moment in the history of British democracy, told with passion and authority. 'A superb account of one of the defining moments in modern British history' Tristram Hunt. 'Peterloo is one of the greatest scandals of British political history ... Jacqueline Riding tells this tragic story with mesmerising skill' John Bew. 'Fast-paced and full of fascinating detail' Tim Clayton. On a hot late summer's day, a crowd of 60,000 gathered in St Peter's Field. They came from all over Lancashire - ordinary working-class men, women and children -...