It all matters The wealthy Birling family are sitting down at dinner when a policeman knocks at the door, he wants to question them about the suicide of Eva Smith, the penniless working-class girl.

The Linden Tree also challenges preconceived ideas of history when Professor Linden comes into conflict with his family about how life should be lived after the war. It is the record of man as a spiritual creature, with a whole world of unknown continents and strange seas, gardens of Paradise and cities lit with hell-fire, within the depths of his own soul. The idea is slowly revealed and elaborated in great detail among six characters over the course of three days at a country inn.Well, not exactly, but the nature of time has been an indispensable part of creative literature ever since stories began to be told. Whether that's putting new work on stages across the world or supporting our outreach and learning programmes, every purchase you make really does make a difference. You want proof that guessing what the author meant when they made something or someone up doesn't work?

But the professor stays put, persisting in the face of opposition and privation, because there’s still work for him to do.

And I tell you that the time will soon come when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish. Doctor Gortler, a displaced German scientist, arrives at the Double Bull Inn run by Sam Shipley and his widowed daughter Sally Pratt in Grindle Moor, North Yorkshire. Like Time and the Conways, this one begins on a birthday; Professor Linden, nominally the head of this two-generation family, teaches history; he’s turning 65 and is being pressed to retire; time (the birthday) has brought the family together from other cities in two countries, but time (its passage over years) has spread them apart; how the characters see things depends in part on their age; Elgar’s cello concerto is discussed twice, for its evocation of times past; etc.

History that ignores the god and the altar is as false as history that could forget the sword and the wheel.Subsequently he found work as theatre reviewer with the Daily News, and also contributed to the Spectator, the Challenge and Nineteenth Century. Some members of the Conservative Party, including Winston Churchill, expressed concern that Priestley might be expressing left-wing views on the programme, and, to his dismay, Priestley was dropped after his talk on 20th October 1940. His favourite among his books was for many years the novel Bright Day, though he later said he had come to prefer The Image Men.

The theme of social responsibility bypasses time periods and generations and is one which is never as important as it is today. It is 1919 and the first world-war is ending: Robin, who has been away in the army is due to arrive. The class and power issues so often addressed by Priestly are as relevant now as they were back then. In the last play, The Linden Tree, the effect of the passage of time on human beings and families is explored in a conventional manner, making it the most "ordinary" of the lot.It has a powerful political message which we will all learn in “fire, blood and anguish” if we don’t listen. Time and the Conways (first performed 1937): The first act takes place on a birthday night in 1919 and introduces us to the many members of the Conway family, two of whom have just come home from the war, plus a few others.