Alan Bleasdale - Early Life

Early Life

Born in Liverpool, Bleasdale is an only child; his father worked in a food factory and his mother in a grocery shop. From 1951-57, he went to the St. Aloysius Roman Catholic Infant and Junior Schools in Huyton-with-Roby (then in Lancashire). From 1957-64, he attended the Wade Deacon Grammar School in Widnes (now the Wade Deacon High School). In 1967, he obtained a teaching certificate from the Padgate College of Education in Warrington (which became Warrington Collegiate Institute, now part of the University of Chester).

In 1967, he married Julie Moses; they have two sons and one daughter. For four years he worked as a teacher at St Columba's Secondary Modern School in Huyton from 1967-71, then King George V School (now The King George V & Elaine Bernacchi School in Bikenibeu in South Tarawa) on the Gilbert and Ellice Islands (now called Kiribati) from 1971-4, and lastly at Halewood Grange Comprehensive School (now known as Halewood College) in Halewood from 1974-5. From 1975 to 1986 he worked as a playwright at the Liverpool Playhouse (becoming associate director) and the Contact Theatre in Manchester (a University of Manchester venue).