Shaw contributed in a range of ways to both political and social writings as well as creating great works of literature. Shaw is one of only two people to have won both an Academy Award and a Nobel Prize for Literature.

Shaw started from the most unpropitious of beginnings. But he possessed a steely self-determination, and turned the unshakeable conviction that he would become a great writer into a self-fulfilling prophecy. This book features selections and extracts from his plays, essays and personal letters.