This second volume of Terence Davies's screenplays brings together his adaptations of classic novels and plays, including his 1995 film of John Kennedy Toole's coming-of-age novel The Neon Bible; his adaptation of Edith Wharton's classic The House of Mirth, starring Gillian Anderson as the young New York socialite Lily Bart; his 2011 film adaptation of Terence Rattigan's play The Deep Blue Sea, and Sunset Song, his adaptation of the Great War novel by Lewis Grassic Gibbon. The screenplays are enriched by previously unpublished material from Terence Davies's personal archive, and there is an introduction to the screenplays by the film critic and curator Michael Koresky.

Terence Davies was a British screenwriter, film director, poet, and novelist. The youngest child of a large working-class Catholic family, he was born in Kensington, Liverpool on 10th November 1945. After leaving school at 16, he worked as a clerk in a shipping office and a book-keeper in an accountancy firm for ten years. During this time he gained amateur acting experience, winning the LAMDA Gold Medal and first prize in the National Arts Awards. In 1973 Terence left Liverpool to go to drama school in Coventry, where he wrote the screen play for Children, which would become the first instalment of The Trilogy. He went on to write and direct nine feature films - Distant Voice Still Lives, The Long Day Closes, The Neon Bible, The House of Mirth, Of Time and the City, The Deep Blue Sea, Sunset Song, A Quiet Passion, and Benediction. His final script, an adaptation of Janette Jenkins’ novel Firefly, which retells the last five days of the life of Noel Coward, is currently in development. He died on 7 October 2023.