Howard Brenton has been described by critic Peter Roberts as "the most solid talent to emerge from the lunch hour theatre scene," a manifestation of London's fringe theater. Brenton is a leader among the so-called second generation of English dramatists, the generation which is succeeding Arnold Wesker, John Osborne, and Harold Pinter. Within this large group of younger playwrights of the 1970s, which includes Tom Stoppard, David Storey, and Christopher Hampton, Brenton is closely associated with a smaller group that critic John Peter names the "wild bunch": Brenton, Snoo Wilson, Howard Barker, and David Hare, the last closely associated with Brenton as writing collaborator and director of many of Brenton's plays.

Born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, Brenton is the son of Donald Henry and Rose Lilian Lewis Brenton. A "blitz baby," as an infant he spent many hours in an air-raid shelter. Before becoming a Methodist minister, his father...