Book excerpt: In this first volume of notebooks, Edward Bond reveals himself to be one of the finest and most creative minds to have emerged in the twentieth century. Exploring the meeting point between politics and the art of the writer, Bond's notes chart the creative progress of his work and thinking over a twenty-year period, from 1959, when his first plays started to be produced at London's Royal Court Theatre, to 1979, when he had achieved fame as a major writer. While providing a detailed commentary on his plays the Notebooks also contain early play drafts, poems and stories, his thoughts on life, Brecht, art and dramatic method as well as his notes on censorship.