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Playwright Alan Bennett donates work to Oxford Library
24 October 2008
Playwright Alan Bennett is to donate his literary archive to the Bodleian library at Oxford University.The donation includes notes, drafts and manuscripts of numerous stage and television plays such as The History Boys and The Madness of George III as well as unpublished diaries dating back to 1974.
He was an undergraduate at the university's Exeter College and said he was giving the material away as a way of repaying the establishment for this free education.
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Bennett stated: "There's so much [that] I'm quite glad to see the back of it. I just pity the poor research student who may have to make sense of it all."
He added he was fortunate enough to attend the university without anyone having to pay any fees.
"It's a situation which young people in education today can only dream of and this is wrong. I believe that free education is a right," added the writer.
Previous premieres at the National Theatre include The Madness of George III and Single Spies.
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