'Among those paddle steamers that will never return was one that I knew well, for it was the pride of our ferry service to the Isle of Wight - none other than the good ship 'Gracie Fields'. I tell you, we were proud of the 'Gracie Fields', for she was the glittering queen of our local line, and instead of taking an hour over her voyage, used to do it, churning like mad, in forty-five minutes. And now never again will we board her at Cowes and go down into her dining saloon for a fine breakfast of bacon and eggs. She has paddled and churned away - for ever. But now - look - this little steamer, like all her brave and battered sisters, is immortal. She'll go sailing proudly down the years in the epic of Dunkirk And our great grand-children, when they learn how we began this War by snatching glory out of defeat, and then swept on to victory may also learn how the little holiday steamers made an excursion to hell and came back glorious.'

Those were the memorable concluding words spoken in a broadcast made by J B Priestley on Wednesday, 5 June, 1940, just after Dunkirk, the tumultuous event that was both a triumph and a disaster. It became the first of a series of short radio talks, the famous 'Postscripts', which established Priestley as a wartime broadcaster second only to Winston Churchill in importance and
influence during a time of great national peril. These broadcasts, listened to by millions of people, were, perhaps, the zenith of his career as a national figure.

John Boynton Priestley (1894-1984) was pre-eminently a dramatist and a novelist. Many of his works have become 20th century literary classics, among them 'The Good Companions', 'Angel Pavement', 'Lost Empires', 'When We are Married', 'An Inspector Calls' and 'Time and the Conways'. But he was undoubtedly the most versatile writer of his time, producing essays, short stories, verse, literary criticism, social histories, travel books and film scripts, as well as an opera libretto and an autobiography. He was also a practitioner in, and an enthusiast for, painting and music.

Away from the arts Priestley played many roles as a political activist and commentator; a campaigner for nuclear disarmament and public lending right; a cultural ambassador; and a student of time and of dreams. He once, memorably, became an actor in one of his own plays and stood as a Parliamentary candidate in the 1945 General Election. It may be argued that in literary, social and political terms he was very much 'a man for all seasons'.