At 80, after writing 83 plays and earning seven Evening Standard theatre awards, two Oliviers, one Tony and a knighthood, Alan Ayckbourn will publish his debut novel this month.

Set in a dystopian England a century from now, the British playwright and director imagines a world in which a plague has ravaged the population and men and women are strictly segregated. The story is told through Soween and her older brother Elihu, who grow up under a brutal dictatorship. Railing against the tyranny of a mendacious leader known as the Preacher, Elihu threatens to ignite a bloody revolution.

“This is a new experience for me,” said Ayckbourn. “God knows how many nerve-racking theatre press nights and now this. The very first book launch of my very first novel. Lord, the things you take on at 80!”

The Divide was originally staged as a six-hour, two-part play at Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre in 2015, before arriving at the Edinburgh international festival two years later. Critics were less than enthused by the playwright’s vision. The Guardian’s Michael Billington wrote: “I found myself pining for the Ayckbourn who is an unparalleled observer of modern manners rather than the one who gazes bleakly into the future,” while the Telegraph described it as “an epic punishment”. The Times claimed it was too bombastic, overblown and would work better as a novel. The production was cut in half by the time it arrived at the Old Vic in 2018 and Ayckbourn has duly taken note.

The fantasy and horror specialist PS Publishing describes its new signing’s work as a timely “fable that unflinchingly examines a dystopian society of brutal repression, forbidden love and seething insurrection”.

The Divide will launch at a free event on 12 September at Stephen Joseph Theatre, where Ayckbourn was artistic director from 1972 to 2009.