About James Agate
James Evershed Agate was an English diarist and theatre critic between the two world wars. He took up journalism in his late twenties and was on the staff of The Manchester Guardian in 1907–1914. He later became a drama critic for The Saturday Review (1921–1923), The Sunday Times (1923–1947) and the BBC (1925–1932). The nine volumes of Agate's diaries and letters cover the British theatre of his time and non-theatrical interests such as sports, social gossip and private preoccupations with health and finances. He published three novels, translated a play briefly staged in London, and regularly published collections of theatre essays and reviews. These were published in his first book, L. of C. (Lines of Communication), of which a reviewer wrote, "Captain James E. Agate ranks as one of the first hundred thousand soldiers who have written a book about the war, but... one is sure there will be no other book like this one. His former paper, The Manchester Guardian, later wrote of him, "That Agate was the first dramatic critic of his time may well be doubted by adherents of Ivor Brown or Desmond MacCarthy, but beyond dispute he was the first theatrical critic.
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