In His Own Words: Early Life

This page contains quotes (listed by year) by Alan Ayckbourn with regard to his early life. They are drawn from a variety of sources and it should always be borne in mind these quotes may not necessarily reflect Alan Ayckbourn's current thoughts on a subject.
"I am middle class. I was born middle class and was brought up in Sussex, the stepson of a bank manager so you cannot get more middle class than that." (1990)

"I began writing around the age of nine, I suppose! Certainly I was tapping out plays in my early teens and had written a good half dozen before I had my first one professionally produced." (1990)

"Story-telling was part of my upbringing - probably the result during my early years of having a mother as a writer who also spent most of her time writing in order to feed our single parent family of two! What choice did I have?" (2014)

"I remember my real father, who was a musician and quite a man’s man, and he wanted to know what I wanted for my birthday and I said, I’d like a doll’s house and he looked absolutely appalled. God bless him, he made me the most beautiful doll’s house and he made it with little rooms and doors. My first characters inhabited that doll’s house and that was very early on when I was six or seven and I was already writing plays set in dolls’ houses." (2021)

All research for this page by Simon Murgatroyd. All quotes are copyright of Haydonning Ltd and credit should be given to 'Alan Ayckbourn's Official Website www.alanayckbourn.net' if reproduced.
All research for this page by Simon Murgatroyd. All quotes are copyright of Haydonning Ltd and credit should be given to 'Alan Ayckbourn's Official Website www.alanayckbourn.net' if reproduced.