Written in the early 1950s when Rattigan was at the height of his powers, The Deep Blue Sea is a powerful account of lives blighted by love - or the lack of it.

The play opens with the failed suicide of Hester Collyer (Peggy Ashcroft in the first production), who has deserted her husband for the raffish charms of an ex-fighter pilot. The play was sparked off by the suicide of a young actor, Kenneth Morgan, with whom Rattigan had himself been much in love.

Terence Rattigan’s first play, published for the first time in this edition to mark the centenary of Rattigan’s birth.

Written with his fellow student, Philip Heimann, while they were both at Oxford, First Episode shows an infatuated undergraduate, Tony, falling for Margot, an actress ten years his senior. And vice versa. Completing a triangle of rival affections is Tony’s best friend, David.

Originally staged at a small experimental theatre in Kew in 1933, First Episode transferred to the West End and then to New York. Rattigan was twenty-two years old. Though not revived since then, it is a candidate – with its cast of eight – for rediscovery, much as was the now-feted After the Dance.

The play that first made Rattigan's name, and ran for over a thousand performances in the 1930s.

French Without Tears is a masterpiece of light comedy about a group of bright young things attempting to learn French on the Riviera amid myriad distractions.

This edition includes an authoritative introduction, biographical sketch and chronology.