Shelagh Delaney has died

Update Nov, 21, 9:40 PM PT:

Statement from Morrissey:

Shelagh Delaney - true-to-you.net

SHELAGH DELANEY

A genuine poet has passed through the world. Shelagh Delaney exercised a wide influence with the shock of plain language, and shafts of satiric wit, into a severe and donnish 1950s world where working-class people had thus far been assumed to be simplistic, flag-waving cannon-fodder. Her writing was a magnificent confession of life as it was commonly lived in her hometown of Salford, with all of its carefully preserved monotony. She was attacked for immorality, which, then as now, is proof that you have hit on something.

'A Taste of Honey' was a sentiment that had not been expressed before its time - far more real than life.

It was the Salford of sagging roofs, rag and bone men, walk-up flats, derelict sites, rear-entrance buses, and life in tight circumstances.

Shelagh Delaney did not become fat with success, or become a celebrity, because she was of richer intellect.

She has always been a part of my life as a perfect example of how to get up and get out and do it. If you worry about respect you don't get it. Shelagh Delaney had it and didn't seem to notice it.

MORRISSEY
Los Angeles, November 2011.

shelagh_delaney.jpg



Shelagh Delaney, author of “A Taste of Honey,” dies of cancer at 71
- The Washington Post

Excerpt:

LONDON — Playwright Shelagh Delaney, best known for her 1958 play “A Taste of Honey,” has died of cancer, her agent said Monday.

Delaney died Sunday night at her daughter’s home in eastern England, said agent Jane Villiers. Delaney was a few days short of her 72nd birthday.



Link to video posted by Uncleskinny:

 
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RIP Ms. Delaney. Morrissey must be hugely sad about this. :tears:
 
I wish I had never wasted my time reading it. And in the linked youtube video she is rather dull and pretentious. I am sure Elton John was very proud of her.

Apparently you have never had the priviledge of watching a loved one or someone you know die of cancer..it's no f***ing laughing matter..no matter who it affects..in the meantime, please continue to post your smug, all knowing, all smart assed remarks here on solo...because you know it will matter to the mass markets outside the town where your ancestors decided to proliferate...all 15 of them! If there is a God i hope sterilization is a trait in your family tree.
 
Some of the comments on this thread need removing. Shelagh's work is part of the fabric of The Smiths - when you watch the film A Taste Of Honey it illustrates the meaning and inspiration in some of Morrissey's lyrics, not just the lines he borrowed but the mood and atmosphere of the lives of the characters and the places. I'm sad to read that she has passed away. I'm also sad that this thread is being left to defile her memory.
 
Her writing was beautiful beyond comprehension. What a gorgeous mark she's left upon this ugly Earth, not entirely sure we even deserved her.
 
Lovely tribute.
 
Some of the comments on this thread need removing. Shelagh's work is part of the fabric of The Smiths - when you watch the film A Taste Of Honey it illustrates the meaning and inspiration in some of Morrissey's lyrics, not just the lines he borrowed but the mood and atmosphere of the lives of the characters and the places. I'm sad to read that she has passed away. I'm also sad that this thread is being left to defile her memory.

I echo your thoughs exactly Reggie.
Sadly you can say what you like about anything on this site and it gets left in the land of free speech. Say anything about Kewpie, however, expect a life ban.

Back to Shelagh, we read the book in school for our exams in 1979 and watched the film too. Loved it then and love it still. Watched it around 1985 for the first time in a while (and 1st time since the debut album had been out) and was shocked - with amusement - at how many lines had been lifted!

JJ
 
Some of the comments on this thread need removing. Shelagh's work is part of the fabric of The Smiths - when you watch the film A Taste Of Honey it illustrates the meaning and inspiration in some of Morrissey's lyrics, not just the lines he borrowed but the mood and atmosphere of the lives of the characters and the places. I'm sad to read that she has passed away. I'm also sad that this thread is being left to defile her memory.

I agree. I've defended David's editorial policies in the past, and I don't think "anonymous" comments are the problem. The problem is we've lost the community moderation ability that we had with slashdot, and the comment threads went rapidly downhill since then.

Just take a look at the Santa Fe thread, in which someone is repeatedly called an "idiot" for typing Action Man instead of Action is my Middle Name. Yeah, that was me who made the mistake, posting anonymously. And I admit I got troll baited when I rose to my own defense. On the other hand, the entire argument there hijacked the thread. Far easier than clogging up the thread with silly back and forths would be to have a policy that prohibits ad hominem attacks. The debate is furthered and in fact enhanced with basic rules of decorum.

I have no problem with people saying "I read a Taste of Honey and didn't like it." But to allow "I read a Taste of Honey and the author is a waste of space" or whatever -- what's the end result of that?

The end result is that people with something to contribute are likely to stay away, while the site is left to the trolls. It happens all the time on the internet.

I know it's been discussed before, and there's no need to respond or renew the debate. I love this site but do have to cast my vote with those saying that some higher level of commenting rules (ie no personal attacks, no profanity, no trolling) is necessary if the main threads are to survive.
 
I have no problem with people saying "I read a Taste of Honey and didn't like it." But to allow "I read a Taste of Honey and the author is a waste of space" or whatever -- what's the end result of that?

Oh I initially liked it until it was hammered into me what it was really about through endless misogynistic comments like "who needs to fly across the country to have his cock bottled by a fat chick if you can have that by simply going to a bar". There are a few people on here who are quick to scream "homophobia" wherever they can, but it is very noticable how misogyny goes completely uncommented. It opened my eyes to how stereotypical the portrayal of these two women is in her play and you can see it repeated in Morrissey's art. The one woman got pregnant and is scared that she won't cope and the solution is the homosexual boy. The other woman goes out with rich men. Cool. Rubber Ring, of course, how could it be otherwise.

You do not have a comment on the other person who delved to his usual lows? This person's comments on the new underclass are well remembered.
 
Dear Family & Friends of Shelagh Delaney: Your loved one, Shelagh is a true-blue hero and champion of the common English and Irish Citizen... The very best this world can offer. Shelaghs work and Morrisseys work, for that matter will go on till the end of time...,"Erin Go Braugh", dear Shelagh.......Ireland Forever!
 
Bless her! A big lost for the world of literature. Very, very bad that any Tv channels in UK have done any tributes today showing interviews, the film A Taste Of Honey or any other things. She was not a Tv celebrity, but they should have done something in memory of such an important figure of the English literature world.
Gejo xx
 
Oh I initially liked it until it was hammered into me what it was really about through endless misogynistic comments like "who needs to fly across the country to have his cock bottled by a fat chick if you can have that by simply going to a bar". There are a few people on here who are quick to scream "homophobia" wherever they can, but it is very noticable how misogyny goes completely uncommented. It opened my eyes to how stereotypical the portrayal of these two women is in her play and you can see it repeated in Morrissey's art. The one woman got pregnant and is scared that she won't cope and the solution is the homosexual boy. The other woman goes out with rich men. Cool. Rubber Ring, of course, how could it be otherwise.

You do not have a comment on the other person who delved to his usual lows? This person's comments on the new underclass are well remembered.

''One women got pregnant and is scared she wont cope....''
you mean a 16 year old girl who has just left school, the bloke she got pregnant by has sailed down the canal (oh and the baby will be black / half caste - as it would have been called then) and has been dumped by her mother...... and you think she wouldnt be scared???????
And tell me what women in her 40's living in a bedsit wouldnt go after a wealthier younger man living in a nice house!

Tell me what TV soap DOESNT portray women as stereotypes? Each soap has the ''man eater'', the ''matriarch'', the ''downtrodden women'', ''the bitch'' etc etc
Oh, and these days every soap has to have the obligatory camp gay. Shelagh beat them all by 50 years!
 
- RIP -
Shelagh Delaney was an extremely talented writer and will be truly missed.

Did Morrissey ever meet Shelagh?
 
as it should be -- a worthy acknowledgment of an estimable talent.as it shouldn't be -- the stupid comments gurgling under the guise of free speech on this and many other threads. the first amendment gives us the unabashed right to protest/speak out/etc. AGAINST OUR GOVERNMENT. since morrissey-solo doesn't fall under any of those three branches it seems to me moderating idiocy isn't impeding upon anyone's liberties. in fact, the argument could be made that the tyrannical absolutist mentality that forces us to endure imbecilic statements is the exact opposite of freedom, in fact, making a mockery of it. and for chrissakes -- if you're going to respond to this comment come up with something a little more intellectually rigorous than "if you don't like it don't come here".
 
''One women got pregnant and is scared she wont cope....''
you mean a 16 year old girl who has just left school, the bloke she got pregnant by has sailed down the canal (oh and the baby will be black / half caste - as it would have been called then) and has been dumped by her mother...... and you think she wouldnt be scared???????

I cannot blame you that you did not read my post properly and fully, because I did not bother to really read the reply to my other post either. This place is barely a place to exchange thoughts.
 
I'm with Old Mathew and auntie christ.Morrissey's statement is 'close to home and near the bone'; just so and apt. Channel 4 website today posted this very early interview with Shelagh Delaney conducted the year Morrissey was born.
 
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