Editing John Osborne (section)

== Early life ==
Osborne was born on 12 December 1929<ref>{{harvnb|Heilpern|2006|p=23}}.</ref> in London, the son of Thomas Godfrey Osborne, a commercial artist and advertising [[Copywriting|copywriter]] of [[South Wales|South Welsh]] ancestry, and Nellie Beatrice Grove, a [[Cockney]] barmaid.<ref>{{harvnb|Heilpern|2006|p=24}}.</ref>

In 1936, the family moved to the north Surrey suburb of [[Stoneleigh, Surrey|Stoneleigh]], where Thomas's mother had already settled.<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1981|pp=38–40}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Whitebrook|2015|p=14}}.</ref> Osborne, however, would regard it as a cultural desert – a school friend declared subsequently that "he thought [we] were a lot of dull, uninteresting people."<ref>Schoolfriend Hilda Berrington, speaking on ''Osborne: Angry Man'', Channel Four.</ref> He adored his father but hated his mother,<ref name="ratcliffe">{{cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-55236|isbn=978-0-19-861412-8|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/55236|title=Osborne, John James|year=2004}}</ref> whom he described as "hypocritical, self-absorbed, calculating and indifferent."<ref>{{cite web |last=Tuohy |first=William |date=27 December 1994 |title=John Osborne; Playwright Wrote 'Look Back in Anger' |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-12-27-mn-13371-story.html |access-date=25 March 2024 |work=[[The Los Angeles Times]]}}</ref>

Thomas Osborne died in 1940, leaving the young boy an insurance settlement which he used to pay for a private education at Belmont College, a minor public school in [[Barnstaple]], Devon.<ref>{{harvnb|Heilpern|2006|pp=60,64}}.</ref> He entered the school in 1943, but was expelled in the summer term of 1945.<ref>{{harvnb|Whitebrook|2015|pp=27-28}}.</ref> Osborne claimed this was for hitting the headmaster, who had struck him for listening to a broadcast by [[Frank Sinatra]], but another former pupil asserted that Osborne was caught fighting with other pupils and did not assault the headmaster.<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1981|pp=148-49}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Whitebrook|2015|pp=28-29}}.</ref> A [[School Certificate (United Kingdom)|School Certificate]] was the only formal qualification he acquired.<ref name="ratcliffe" />