[ Val Gurney, English actor and playwright. ] Manuscript of 'Twice nightly version' of unpublished play 'A Sinner in Paradise by Val Gurney'.

96pp., 8vo. In exercise book, in blue ink with red underlining. With two additional passages on slips of paper pinned onto leaves. Aged and worn, in red card wraps with repaired spine. Nicoll notes an earlier title 'All for Him'. Set in the house of London stockbroker David Carne. Considering the play's popularity in the provinces, its fall into oblivion is surprising. Productions are noted at Southampton (1918-1919, 1930-1931), Oxford (1919), Swansea (1920), Sunderland (1924, the poster announcing: 'J. R. C. Hamilton's Famous Stock Company present the remarkable episode - A Sinner in Paradise by Val Gurney'), Burnley (1928, 'That astonishing piece'), Belfast (1930), Chesterfield (1935). Gurney featured in the 1913 British film 'The Road to Ruin'. Another of his plays, 'The Sheik of Araby', was licensed by the Lord Chamberlain for Dover Hippodrome in June 1923. Not published.