Simon Gray, who died aged 71 on Wednesday, wrote finely crafted plays that dissected the brittle lives of middle-class intellectuals. As such, he found himself out of fashion in a theatrical world that began to prefer the work of younger, more “socially relevant” writers as the last century ended.

Yet Gray’s plays, which included Butley, Close of Play, Otherwise Engaged and Quartermaine’s Terms, were brilliant evocations of cynicism and disillusionment, often set in academic environments. They were highly valued by Harold Pinter, with whom he worked on several occasions, and earned him a CBE in 2004.