Jonathan Harvey

Drawing together the work of ten leading playwrights – a mixture of established and current writers – National Theatre Connections 2013 offers young performers between the ages of thirteen and nineteen everywhere an engaging selection of plays to perform, read or study. Each play is specifically commissioned by the National Theatre’s literary department and reflects the past year’s programming at the venue in the plays’ ideas, themes and styles. The plays are performed by approximately 200 schools and youth theatre companies across the UK and Ireland, in partnership with multiple professional regional theatres where the works are showcased. The volume features an introduction by Anthony Banks, Associate Director for the National Theatre Discover Programme, and each play includes notes from the writer and director addressing the themes and ideas behind the play, as well as production notes and exercises. Published to coincide with the 2013 Connections festival, and the 50th anniversary of the National Theatre, this year's collection features work from Howard Brenton, Jim Cartwright, Lucinda Coxon, Ryan Craig, Stacey Gregg, Jonathan Harvey, Lenny Henry, Jemma Kennedy, Morna Pearson, and Anya Reiss.

Teenage boys Ste and Jamie are neighbours on a South London estate. Jamie is more knowledgeable about The Sound of Music than football, while classmate Ste never misses a sports day. Both are being bullied, Jamie at school and Ste at home by his violent father and brother. One night, when things get too much, Ste seeks refuge in Jamie's flat and, sharing a bed, the boys strike up a new relationship. Together they come to terms with their sexuality and explore their feelings alongside their Mama Cass loving, rebellious friend Leah and with the much-needed emotional support of Jamie's lioness mother, Sandra. Thirty years on from its initial publication, Jonathan Harvey's iconic, coming-out and coming-of-age story set in the nineties still resonates with ideas on community, friendship, rites of passage and what it is to be sixteen and in love. This edition is published to coincide with the revival at London's Stratford East theatre, in September, 2023.

It’s no secret that Sylvie is unravelling. Frozen in time in her Blundellsands house, she inhabits a fantasy world that never was. Garnet, her sister, is older and wiser – and wearier, with her shopping lists and tired love. She’s always fanned the flames of Sylvie’s fantasies. Because if she didn’t… who knows where they’d both end up? But now the whole family’s up in Liverpool for a birthday, and Garnet’s got a secret of her own to pass on. There’ll be a party… but it’s not going to be pretty. Welcome to a family more messed up than your own.

Inspired by the author’s personal experience of sustaining acquired brain injury (ABI), this path-breaking book explores the (re)construction of identity after ABI. It offers a way of understanding ABI through a social scientific lens, promoting an understanding that is generated through close engagement with the lives and experiences of ABI survivors. The author follows the everyday experiences of six male survivors and critically investigates their identity (re)construction after their ABI. As well as demonstrating identity (re)construction after ABI, the experiences of the participants allow the reader to investigate neurological rehabilitation from their perspective. This book suggests that rehabilitation after ABI is often a continual process that extends beyond the formal, medically prescribed period. It also shows that identity after ABI is often (re)constructed in an unpredictable way; a way that emphasises the importance of reciprocal support and the uncertainty of future life. A Sociological Approach to Acquired Brain Injury and Identity is essential reading for academics and students from a range of social scientific disciplines with an interest in biographical or ethnographic research methods. This book offers a social scientific view of rehabilitation and as such is also essential reading for academics, students and professionals with an interest in health and illness, particularly neurological rehabilitation and brain injury rehabilitation.

Rachel and Shirley. Two women from different decades but somehow their lives are entwined, and neither can know the impact one woman will have on the other until it’s way too late . . .2017Pregnant Rachel Taylor is enjoying a holiday in Morocco when she gets the phone call to say her mother hasn’t got much time left to live. With a head of mixed emotions she returns to the village where she grew up to say her last goodbyes. It’s true to say their relationship had often been strained and Rachel had never quite understood why. When clearing out her mother’s things she thinks she finds an answer, and her world is changed forever.1978Shirley Burke is on a family holiday at Butlin’s when she first sets eyes on Doug, a man considerably older than herself. When his daughter goes missing one night, Shirley’s the one who finds her and returns her to him. When his gratitude turns into something else, Shirley realizes this is her time to shine. But Doug is married, and her young life is about to get very complicated. From the award-winning author of All She Wants and the writer of Coronation Street, The Years She Stole is big-hearted novel by Jonathan Harvey.'Some of these conversations will make you cry and some will make you laugh' – Daily Mail

Inspired by the author’s personal experience of sustaining acquired brain injury (ABI), this path-breaking book explores the (re)construction of identity after ABI. It offers a way of understanding ABI through a social scientific lens, promoting an understanding that is generated through close engagement with the lives and experiences of ABI survivors. The author follows the everyday experiences of six male survivors and critically investigates their identity (re)construction after their ABI. As well as demonstrating identity (re)construction after ABI, the experiences of the participants allow the reader to investigate neurological rehabilitation from their perspective. This book suggests that rehabilitation after ABI is often a continual process that extends beyond the formal, medically prescribed period. It also shows that identity after ABI is often (re)constructed in an unpredictable way; a way that emphasises the importance of reciprocal support and the uncertainty of future life. A Sociological Approach to Acquired Brain Injury and Identity is essential reading for academics and students from a range of social scientific disciplines with an interest in biographical or ethnographic research methods. This book offers a social scientific view of rehabilitation and as such is also essential reading for academics, students and professionals with an interest in health and illness, particularly neurological rehabilitation and brain injury rehabilitation.

Filled with Jonathan Harvey's trademark wit, warmth and outrageous humour, The History of Us is a novel about friendship and secrets, the choices we make and the consequences we face.'I knew Jonathan Harvey could make me laugh. I didn't expect him to make me cry too' – Jojo Moye, author of Me Before YouLiverpool 1985Kathleen, Adam and Jocelyn are three teenage friends who bond over an unconventional nativity play. They all have ambitions, they all have dreams. Adam wants to be a writer, Jocelyn wants to sing and Kathleen – well, she wants to be an embalmer. London 2015Kathleen is a borderline alcoholic, Adam is holding on to a shocking secret and Jocelyn is dead. Where did it all go wrong? How did having the world at their feet turn into having the weight of it on their shoulders?

Beautiful Thing explores pre-teenage homo-erotic sensuality and the frictions and intimacies of living cheek by jowl on a Thamesmead housing estate.

Told from the point of view of four family members, The Secrets We Keep, by Coronation Street scriptwriter Jonathan Harvey, is a funny and poignant story. It's hard being that woman, the one whose husband disappeared. It's made me quite famous. I just wish it was for something else. He went out five years ago for a pint of milk and never came back. So here I am with a daughter who blames me for all that's wrong in the world, a son trying his best to pick up the pieces and a gaggle of new neighbours who are over friendly, and incredibly nosy. Then I find a left luggage ticket in the pocket of one of his old coats and suddenly I'm thinking . . . What if he's not dead? What if he's still out there somewhere? You think you have the perfect life, the perfect kids, and then it's all turned inside out. What if I don't like what I find? And is it a chance I'm willing to take?

From Jonathan Harvey, the award-winning author of All She Wants and the writer of Coronation Street and Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, comes The Girl Who Just Appeared, a comedy with a huge, beating heart. London 2014. Holly Smith has never fitted in. Adopted when just a few months old, she's always felt she was someone with no history, the girl who just appeared. All she has is the address of where she was born - 32B Gambier Terrace, Liverpool. By a bizarre twist of fate Holly discovers that the flat is available to rent. She travels north and moves in. When she finds a biscuit tin full of yellowing papers under the floorboards, she wonders if this might hold the secret to her past. Liverpool 1981. Fifteen-year-old Darren negotiates life with his errant mother and the younger brother he is bringing up. When the Toxteth Riots explode around him Darren finds himself with a moral dilemma that will have consequences for the rest of his life. Flitting between the present and the past, we discover how Darren and Holly's lives become intertwined. Will Holly uncover the secrets of her past? Or will she always feel like the girl who just appeared?

The Confusion of Karen Carpenter, a book that will make you laugh and cry, is by Coronation Street scriptwriter Jonathan Harvey. Hello. There are two things you should know about me: 1) My name is Karen Carpenter. 2) Just before Christmas my boyfriend left me. I’m not THE Karen Carpenter. I just have the most embarrassing name in Christendom. Particularly as I’m no skinny minny and don’t play the drums. I can’t even sing. I’m tone deaf. I work in a school in the East End. (Where I came third in a ‘Teacher we’d most like to sleep with’ competition amongst the Year 11 boys) My Mum’s driving me mad. She’s come to stay and is obsessed with Scandi crime shows and Zumba. Oh yeah. The boyfriend. After eleven ‘happy’ years he left me. No explanation just a post it on the kettle when I got in from work. I think I’m handling it really well. I don’t think I’m confused at all. What was my name again?

All She Wants is a laugh out loud story about a Liverpool girl who becomes a famous soap star, by Coronation Street scriptwriter Jonathan Harvey.'A mad-cap, laugh-out-loud roller coaster of a ride . . . with an unexpectedly tender sting in the tail.' - Marian Keyes, author of The BreakThere are some things in life you can always rely on. Living in the shadow of your ‘perfect’ brother Joey, getting the flu over Christmas, and your Mother showing you up in the supermarket. Then there are some things you really don’t count on happening: a good dose of fame, getting completely trashed at an awards ceremony, and catching your fella doing something unmentionable on your wedding day. This is my story, it’s dead tragic. You have been warned . . .'Utterly original, sharply written and very funny. I laughed, and then I laughed. And then I had to go back and re-read the bits that I'd missed and laugh some more.' - Jojo Moyes, author of Me Before You‘Hugely Enjoyable’ – comedian Kathy Burke.

Canary is multi-award winning playwright Jonathan Harvey's long-awaited return to the stage: a deeply moving, funny, unflinching, and often magical story about love, honesty and being brave enough to sing out at the top of your voice - with style. In 1960s Liverpool two lovers hide their homosexuality in the closet, then go their separate ways. While pits close and dole queues grow, a couple of runaways find Heaven in 1980s London. And today the paparazzi chase a love story that could tear a family apart. Then a grieving mother gets lost up a mountain, with a vicar for some dubious consolation. With a unique richness of texture and range, Canary combines pathos and humour with a wildly ambitious scope crossing decades through cyclical family histories. The diverse character list includes a primetime TV host, Queen Isabella, Eleanor Rigby, an 'aversion therary' doctor, Mary Whitehouse and striking miners. Skilfully pulling these wide-ranging threads together, Canary provides a social overview of Britain during the last 50 years, with a focus on the struggle against homophobia. Jonathan Harvey's trademark style of warmth, poignancy, humour and imagination is obvious in this epic, Liverpudlian Angels in America for the 21st century.

This volume is a collection of essays based on lectures given at the Orpheus Institute in Ghent at various occasions over the last four years. Two of our five distinguished authors are British, three are Germans. Two are prominent composers and both keen and provocative writers about music; one is a musicologist and daring critic who specializes in contemporary music. There are also two philosophers and Adorno specialists that deal with such fundamental and highly complex matters as music and language, and music and time. All authors subscribe to the same seriousness of purpose, so that you may find reminiscences of one text in the others, which will make for a fascinating read. Moreover, this book is all about the current state of music, about thinking, speaking, and writing about music in the immediate aftermath of that stirring and fascinating twentieth century.

A new collection of the latest plays from the writer of Beautiful Thing and TV's Gimme, Gimme, Gimme "JONATHAN HARVEY has an athletic and fantastical imagination, bawdy, funny and joyously blasphemous" Sunday Times GUIDING STAR: "Dry, funny, truthful, the writing buzzes with graceful perception and Scouse sarcasm...one of the best new plays of the year" Daily Mail HUSHABYE MOUNTAIN: "You would have to have a heart hewn from granite not to respond warmly to Jonathan Harvey's latest play" Guardian OUT IN THE OPEN: "A touching exploration of grief, the secrets and lies that evolve in friendships and the difficulty of telling the truth to those we love" The Times

The brilliant new play from the writer of Beautiful Thing "What you don't know, don't hurt you" Tony's ready to live-it-large and love again. But his efforts to step back on to the scene are hampered by a secret his friends, Monica and Kevin, should have told him a long time ago. Out in the Open is a funny and caustic exploration of love and the limits of friendship set over a long, hazily hot summer weekend in London. Directed by Kathy Burke, Out in the Open premiered at London's Hampstead Theatre in March 2001 and transferred to Birmingham Rep.

Jonathan Harvey's most popular plays collected in one volume for the first time Contains the smash hit plays Beautiful Thing - a bittersweet tale of the joys and trials of living cheek-by-jowl in a Thamesmead housing estate, Babies is based on the playwright's experiences as a teacher which was 'mercilessly robbed from a particular night when I arrived at a pupil's birthday party to be entertained by a drag queen dressed as the Queen' and The Rupert Street Lonely Hearts Club, set among the low-life of Soho centres on the character of Marti, a gay man of a certain age, who can't believe that anyone might fancy him; Boom Bang-A-Bang is about a gathering to view the Eurovision song contest.

From the author of the hugely successful stage play/film Beautiful Thing Hushabye Mountain reveals a world that has learned to live with AIDS. It is full of love, pain, laughs and friendship, where drugs in their various combinations are exhilarating, destructive, costly and even life restoring. Hushabye Mountain premiered at the Lyceum Theatre, Crewe, in February 1999, in a production with English Touring Theatre." You would have to have a heart hewn from granite not to respond warmly to Jonathan Harvey's latest play" (Guardian)

Beautiful Thing explores pre-teenage homo-erotic sensuality and the frictions and intimacies of living cheek by jowl on a Thamesmead housing estate.