an English author, actor, humourist and playwright. He was born 9 May 1934 in Armley in Leeds, West Yorkshire. Attended Leeds Modern School, learned Russian at the Joint Services School for Linguists during his National Service, and gained a place at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. Accepted by Exeter College, Oxford and went on to receive a first-class degree in history. While at Oxford he performed comedy with a number of future successful actors in the Oxford Revue. Bennett has lived in Camden Town in London for over thirty years, though spends a good proportion of his time at his rural home in Clapham in his native Yorkshire and shares his home with Rupert Thomas (editor of the glossy magazine “The World of Interiors”) his partner and of whom he has written in his autobiography “Untold Stories”. In August 1960, Bennett, along with Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller, and Peter Cook, achieved instant fame by appearing at the Edinburgh Festival in the satirical revue “Beyond the Fringe”. Bennett’s first stage play, “Forty Years On’, was produced in 1968. “Talking Heads” (1987), a sextet of poignantly comic monologues, each of which depicted several stages in the character’s decline from an initial state of denial or ignorance of their predicament, through a slow realization of the hopelessness of their situation, and progressing to a bleak or ambiguous conclusion. A second set of six ‘Talking Heads” pieces followed a decade later. In his 2005 prose collection “Untold Stories” Bennett writes openly for the first time in the autobiographical sketches which form a large part of the book about his homosexuality. “The Lady in the Van”, a radio play broadcast on 21 February 2009 on BBC Radio 4, with actor Maggie Smith, was based on his real-life experiences with a tramp called Miss Shepherd who lived on Bennett’s driveway in several dilapidated vans for over fifteen years. Bennett’s critically-acclaimed “The History Boys” was one of the biggest hists in the history of the National Theatre, which transferred to both the West End and Broadway. Bennett received the Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Theatre. It went on to win six Tony Awards on Broadway. A film version was released in the UK on 13 October 2006. The play “The Habit of Art” opened to rave reviews at the National Theatre in November 2009. It is about the relationship between the poet W. H. Auden and the composer Benjamin Britten. Bennett’s lugubrious yet expressive voice and the sharp humour and evident humanity of his writing have made his readings of his own work (especially his autobiographical writing) very popular. His readings of the “Winnie the Pooh” stories on the children’s TV programme Jackanory are also widely enjoyed. Bennett was made an Honorary Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford in 1987. He was also awarded a D.Litt by the University of Leeds in 1990 and an Hon. PhD from Kingston in 1996. However in 1998 Bennett refused an honorary doctorate from Oxford University, in protest at its accepting funding for a named chair in honour of press baron Rupert Murdoch. He also declined a CBE in 1988 and a knighthood in 1996.
