Me! I'm Afraid of Virginia Woolf

This is definitely an early work, and it shows. It's a bit long, a bit pausy, occasionally a bit slow-moving. The "hero" (if that's an appropriate word for him) isn't very sympathetic. But there's plenty of clues about the future of Bennett's writing. This is his first work with Thora Hird and Julie Walters, both of whom would go on to glory in both series of Talking Heads, many years later.

There's an overbearing mother, repressed homosexuality, an embarrassingly loud conversation in a cafe, the idea that hippy-ish or left-wing ideas make people uncomfortable, themes of education, failed sexual relationships that are over before they have begun, and, of course, Northern England.

All of the above elements will be honed, improved and adapted in future workings, but this really is the birth of a modern genius. Occasionally a bit tedious, though.