Christopher Fry was born Arthur Hammond Harris in 1907. After a short stint as a teacher, he renamed himself Christopher Fry, and during the 1930s worked in a variety of theatrical jobs.

After the Second World War he began to make a name for himself as a verse dramatist with the one-act play A Phoenix Too Frequent and the full-length drama The Firstborn (both 1946). However, the major success of his career came with The Lady's Not for Burning in 1948, which ran for nine months in the West End and is still frequently revived. He later wrote screenplays for Hollywood, as well as plays, adaptations and essays.