Prompt books contain not only the script of a play, but all the supporting information necessary to stage a production, such as cast lists, scene lists, lighting and property plots (schedules), information on sets, and detailed stage directions. They therefore constitute a key source for studies of individual productions, and of the staging of plays in the first half of the twentieth century.
Twenty-one of the prompt books below are typescripts produced by Marshall's typewriting and translating service, uniformly bound in brown book-cloth, titled in gilt on the spine and front cover. Some of the prompt books contain professional photographs of the sets. In each case the date given is that of the first production by Basil Dean.