England was raised in a
Roman Catholic household and studied at
Downside School. He joined the British Army and served in the Far Eastern theatre, where he did his share of arduous marches "over two or three mountains in a day". His stint in the army would serve England well later in his literary career. He studied at
RADA as a playwright, and around this time began writing pieces for magazines. The first of England's plays to be produced was
End of Conflict, which was staged at the
Belgrade Theatre in Coventry in November 1961. The young
Ian McKellen played one of the principal roles in this story of British soldiers serving in the Far East. The success of
End of Conflict led to the
Arts Council awarding a playwriting
bursary to England. In 1963, the Belgrade staged England's next play
The Big Contract, a story of industrial dispute in a large firm. England also wrote plays for television throughout the 1960s, for example,
The Move After Checkmate, a crime thriller that was broadcast in 1966 as part of
Anglia Television's "Play of the Week" series.
Figures in a Landscape Figures in a Landscape was England's first novel. Published by
Jonathan Cape in the summer of 1968, it was hailed by critics as an exemplary addition to the literature of escape. Two professional soldiers, Ansell and MacConnachie, have escaped from a column of
POWs in an unnamed country in the tropics. Safety across the border lies 400 miles away; in the meantime, they must make their way through alien territory, battling the climate and the terrain as well as the enemy's soldiers and helicopters.
The Times called the book "a fiercely masochistic accomplishment" and concluded another review as follows: In 1970 the novel was made into
a film directed by
Joseph Losey with
Robert Shaw and
Malcolm McDowell in the two main roles. According to
The Times, England had been working on a second novel provisionally entitled
The Other Woman, but it is unclear whether this book ever saw the light of day.
Conduct Unbecoming England's other significant work was the play
Conduct Unbecoming. First staged in May 1969 at the
Theatre Royal in Bristol, the story concerns a scandal in a regiment of the
Indian cavalry in the 1880s.
Conduct Unbecoming transferred to the
West End in July 1969, playing at the
Queen's Theatre.
Michael Billington wrote of the play: This play too was translated into a film,
Conduct Unbecoming, with
Michael York,
Stacy Keach,
Richard Attenborough and
Trevor Howard in starring roles. England's second novel, ''No Man's Land'', was published by Jonathan Cape in 1997. ==Personal life==