Editing Joe Orton (section)

==Early life==
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Joe Orton was born on 1 January 1933 at Causeway Lane Maternity Hospital, [[Leicester]], to William Arthur Orton and Elsie Mary Orton (née Bentley). William worked for Leicester County Borough Council as a gardener and Elsie worked in the local footwear industry until [[tuberculosis]] cost her a lung. At the time of Joe's birth, William and Mary were living with William's family at 261 Avenue Road Extension in [[Clarendon Park, Leicester]].  Joe's younger brother, Douglas, was born in 1935. That year, the Ortons moved to 9 Fayrhurst Road on the Saffron Lane Estate, a [[council estate]]. Orton's younger sisters, Marilyn and Leonie, were born in 1939 and 1944, respectively.<ref>''I Had It in Me'', Leonie Orton (Barnett), 2016, Leicester: Quirky Press, pp. 11-16.</ref>

Orton attended Marriot Road Primary School but failed the [[eleven-plus]] exam after extended bouts of [[asthma]], and so took a secretarial course at Clark's College in Leicester from 1945 to 1947.<ref>''Stage and Screen Lives'', 9, Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 249.</ref> He began working as a junior clerk for £3 a week.

Orton became interested in performing in theatre around 1949 and joined a number of dramatic societies, including the Leicester Dramatic Society. While working on amateur productions he was determined to improve his appearance and physique, buying bodybuilding courses, taking [[elocution]] lessons. He was accepted for a scholarship at the [[Royal Academy of Dramatic Art]] (RADA) in November 1950, and he left the [[East Midlands]] for London. His entrance into RADA was delayed until May 1951 by [[appendicitis]].

Orton met [[Kenneth Halliwell]] at RADA in 1951 and moved into a [[West Hampstead]] flat with him and two other students that June. Halliwell was seven years older than Orton; they quickly formed a strong relationship and became lovers.

After graduating, both Orton and Halliwell went into regional repertory work: Orton spent four months in [[Ipswich]] as an assistant stage manager; Halliwell in [[Llandudno]], Wales. Both returned to London and began to write together. They collaborated on a number of unpublished novels (often imitating [[Ronald Firbank]]) with no success at gaining publication. The rejection of their great hope, ''The Last Days of Sodom,'' in 1957 led them to solo works.<ref>John Lahr, ''Prick Up Your Ears'', 1980 Penguin Books edition, Chapter 3, 'Unnatural Practices', pp. 129-132</ref> Orton wrote his last novel, ''The Vision of Gombold Proval'' (posthumously published as ''Head to Toe''), in 1959. He later drew on these manuscripts for ideas; many show glimpses of his stage-play style.

Confident of their "specialness," Orton and Halliwell refused to work for long periods. They subsisted on Halliwell's money (and unemployment benefits) and were forced to follow an [[ascetic]] life to restrict their spending to £5 a week. From 1957 to 1959, they worked in six-month stretches at [[Cadbury's]] to raise money for a new flat; they moved into a small, austere flat at 25 [[Noel Road]] in [[Islington]] in 1959.