Both a practical guide to playwriting and a memoir, Butler talks eloquently about childhood and place (he was raised in Sheffield) as an endless deep well for him to draw on as a playwright.

The Stage

For me, [Leo] Butler is a poet of the human damage of poverty. His language is terse and fractured. He reminds me as much of Emily Dickinson as he does of many playwrights. He is, I think, as close as English theatre has come to the master of Bavarian naturalism Franz Xavier Kroetz.

Simon Stephens, playwright

This book is much more than an autobiography ... Filling you with the feeling of creativity unleashed … Notes from a Working-Class Playwright is a really fine book about playwriting that's both fascinating as a life story and compelling as a series of good ideas, all of which glitter in the mind long after you've put down the volume.

Aleks Sierz

A really fine book about playwriting that's both fascinating as a life story and compelling as a series of good ideas, all of which glitter in the mind long after you've put down the volume.

Aleks Sierz Blog

Butler offers humour and pragmatism throughout … Aspiring playwrights will find Notes From a Working-Class Playwright a perceptive text.

Lou Reviews Blog