The Angry Young Men
The Angry Young Men

Summary/Abstract: The “angry young men” were a group of mostly working and middle class British playwrights and novelists who became prominent in the 1950s. The group’s leading members included John Osborne and Kingsley Amis. The phrase was originally coined by the Royal Court Theatre’s press officer to promote John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger. It is thought to be derived from the autobiography of Leslie Paul, founder of the Woodcraft Folk, whose Angry Young Men was published in 1951. Following the success of the Osborne play, the label was later applied by British newspapers to describe young British writers who were characterized by disillusionment with traditional English society. The term was always imprecise, began to have less meaning over the years as the writers to whom it was originally applied became more divergent, and many of them dismissed the label as useless.

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