Allan Monkhouse

Who was Allan Monkhouse?

Allan Noble Monkhouse was an English playwright, critic, essayist and novelist.

He was born in Barnard Castle, County Durham. He worked in the cotton trade, in Manchester, and settled in Disley, Cheshire. From 1902 to 1932 he worked on the Manchester Guardian, writing also for the New Statesman.

As second in command at the Guardian, Monkhouse helped to launch the career of James Agate by publishing his open letters from France during the first World War. Agate appears in Monkhouse's play "Nothing Like Leather" barely disguised as the theatre critic "Topaz".

He began to write drama for the Gaiety Theatre, Manchester, shortly after it was opened by Annie Horniman, along with Stanley Houghton and Harold Brighouse, forming a school of realist dramatists independent of the London stage, who were known as the Manchester School.