Taste of Honey writer dies

Playwright Shelagh Delaney, best-known for her 1958 play A Taste Of Honey, has died of cancer.

Ms Delaney died at her daughter’s home in Suffolk on Sunday night a few days before her 72nd birthday, said her agent Jane Villiers.

A Taste Of Honey, the gritty tale of a young woman who gets pregnant following a one-night stand with a black sailor and is cared for by a gay friend, caused controversy when it was first shown.

Playwright passed away a few days before her birthday

Ms Delaney was just 19 at the time.

But the play enjoyed success in London and New York and was later adapted into a film, directed by Tony Richardson.

The 1961 movie starred Rita Tushingham and won four Baftas, including Best British Screenplay, which she won with Richardson.

Ms Delaney penned the play in just two weeks, adapting it from a novel she had been writing.

She wrote it after seeing Terence Rattigan’s Variations On A Theme and felt she could do better.

Morrissey paid tribute to the playwright by referencing her writing in his lyrics and her face also appeared on the cover of The Smiths’ 1987 compilation album Louder Than Bombs.