Bill Naughton is one of those dramatists, like Walter Greenwood, who came to the stage after a thoroughly mixed experience elsewhere. Born in Ballyhaunis, County Mayo, Ireland, Naughton grew up in northwest England. He spent his boyhood in Bolton, Lancashire, where he was educated at St. Peter and St. Paul School. He was a civil defense driver in London during World War II, and worked as a lorry driver, weaver, and coal bagger before coming to the theater in the 1960s when he was over fifty. Not that he had not produced dramatic works before this; he had contributed to television and radio since the mid-1950s, but he emerged suddenly between 1963 and 1965 with those plays that will keep his name in theater records, though nothing he has done since has been particularly acclaimed. His best works remain Alfie (1963) and Spring and Port Wine (1964), though All in Good...