Alan Ayckbourn

) from Keele University
1987: Honorary Doctor of Letters degree (Litt. They have been translated into over 35 languages and are performed on stage and television throughout the world. It was not until 1963 that Ayckbourn directed a play of his own (a revival of Standing Room Only) 1967 that Ayckbourn directed a première of his own (The Sparrow).

He has written and produced more than seventy full-length plays in Scarborough and London and was between 1972 and 2009 the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough where all but four of his plays have received their first performance. They have been translated into over 35 languages and are performed on stage and television throughout the world.