Keith Waterhouse

Billy Liar

There is a Happy Land

In the early 1960s, a golden age for newly-discovered writers, Chris Duffy was something of a nearly man. His debut novel was reasonably successful; his second was turned down as being too like the first. Thanks to procrastination and heavy drinking, he has published nothing since. Settled now in Brighton, where he ekes out a living running a market bric-a-brac stall, Duffy dreams of the blurred decades that seem to have slipped through his fingers: where did it all go wrong? But during one confusing weekend, on the opening days of the Brighton Literary Festival, everything looks set to change. Lurching through the razzmatazz of stilt-walkers, mime artists and unicyclists, Duffy learns of the existence of a long-lost manuscript by a famous novelist, now dead, and resolves to get hold of it, pass it off as his own and thus give his wilted career a kick-start. Unfortunately, little in Duffy's disordered life ever runs smoothly, particularly on this crowded weekend...

Palace Pier

This text provides a manual of tabloid journalism for students and everybody in the business.

Waterhouse on Newspaper Style

Alan Sillitoe

Perhaps one of the most revered works of fiction in the twentieth-century, "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner "is a modern classic about integrity, courage, and bucking the system. Its title story recounts the story of a reform school cross-country runner who seizes the perfect opportunity to defy the authority that governs his life. It is a pure masterpiece. From there the collection expands even further from the touching "On Saturday Afternoon" to the rollicking "The Decline and Fall and Frankie Buller." Beloved for its lean prose, unforgettable protagonists, and real-life wisdom, " The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" captured the voice of a generation, and its poignant and empowering life lessons will continue to captivate and entertain readers for generations to come.

Fanny Peculiar

Returning from the memorial service, June Pepper, middle-aged widow of a tough tabloid editor cut down in his prime, sets about following her late husband's instructions to keep a journal of her bereavement, as therapy. But he did not say anything about writing it down. It is therefore in the form of a stream-of-consciousness monologue to the departed Sam the June records her reflections on her new status of widowhood. She is to find that this business of grieving is not the straightforward process she had imagined. For one thing, day-to-day existence with all its little preoccupations persists in carrying on almost as usual. There are comings and goings and encounters - some of them unwelcome, such as the intrusion of a problem stepdaughter, Pauline; others more promising, like the relationship she forms with someone she dubs The Suit - a man she finds herself attracted towards because he is wearing one of her husband's suits bought from Oxfam. There are shocks, too - skeletons in cupboards, unpleasant truths to come to terms with. Imagining at first that the state of bereavement gently recedes over the months like a boat slowly disappearing across the horizon, June discovers that it is more in the nature of a shipwreck. Things will not stop happening. she is forced to re-think her marriage, her own life, her attitude to death itself. As she brings her journal to a close she is not at all sure that Sam has been wise in his advice. Neither are we.

Good Grief

'Buy, borrow or beg Keith Waterhouse's outstanding new novel. I can't recommend it too highly. Waterhouse has an uncanny gift for recapturing every attitude, agony and phrase of childhood and youth.' - "Daily Mirror" 'I wished I'd written Keith Waterhouse's first novel; and now, even more, I wish I'd written his second . . . "Billy Liar" is very funny: funny in a wild and sardonic and high-spirited way without malice or cruelty.' - John Braine, author of "Room at the Top" 'A brilliant novel, in language fresh and sweet, with characters vivid and singular in an inventive and dynamic story. It teems, it bursts with originality.' - "Saturday Review" 'Extremely funny . . . its lambent humour, quick-changing from robust to the delicate, is always fresh . . . should gladden the hearts of even the most exacting readers.' - "Daily Telegraph" Billy Fisher feels trapped by his working-class parents, his unfulfilling job as an undertaker's clerk, and his life in a dull, provincial town. His only refuge is in his daydreams, where he is the leader of the country of Ambrosia. Unfortunately, Billy's wild imagination leads him to tell lies constantly: to his parents, his employer, and his three girlfriends. On one tragi-comic Saturday, as Billy plots his escape to a life of adventure and excitement in London, all his lies finally catch up with him, with hilarious and disastrous results. A smash bestseller and one of the great comic novels of the 20th century, "Billy Liar" (1959) inspired an award-winning film, a play, a musical, a television series, and a sequel. This edition marks the novel's first publication in America in more than fifty years and includes a new introduction by Nick Bentley and a reproduction of the original jacket art by William Belcher.

Billy Liar ; Billy Liar on the Moon

"In this 1975 sequel, Billy is thirty-three but still hasn't grown out of his propensity for lying. Stuck in a loveless marriage in a dismal town, where he has a dead-end job in local government, Billy seeks escape through his affair with Helen, who is also unhappily married. But once again he finds himself in danger of being undone by his lies: vodka martinis charged to his expense account, a wise-cracking alter ego named Oscar, a false police report about a stolen set of nonexistent golf clubs, an imaginary cat named 'Mr Pussy-paws' . . . Now the all-important town festival is approaching, but instead of doing the planning, Billy is busy trying to keep ahead of the suspicions of his wife, the police, and Helen's jealous husband." --Publisher description.

Billy Liar on the Moon

Willis Hall

"The sponge room": an attendant offers a young couple a room and a chance to be alone. "Squat Betty": a strange trio engage in an inconclusive argument.

And Squat Betty : a Double Bill

The Sponge Room

'Among the few great writers of our time' Independent 'An exceptionally talented novelist' Sunday Times 'Remarkable for the deep and unwavering insight it gives into child behaviour' The Times Seen through the eyes of a young boy living on a council estate in a northern town, a pre-war childhood emerges that is universal in its everyday adventures, shifting allegiances, mysteries and occasional tragedy. Yet it is also one that is rooted firmly in a bygone era of innocence. Acclaimed on its first publication, There is a Happy Land marked the debut of a brilliant new talent and is now seen as a much-loved classic.

Keith Waterhouse is one of Britain’s most popular writers in nearly every field. This collection brings together for the first time his most celebrated plays from a career spanning more than forty years. Our Song is a warm, tender, romantic drama, infused with moments of great humour. Pulling himself out of the rut of his middle-aged executive lifestyle, Roger Piper stumbles into a sixteen-month tempestuous affair. Billy Liar tells the story of a funeral parlour worker with a humdrum life, who spends most of his time dreaming of ways to escape his drab existence in Yorkshire. Adapted from his celebrated novel. Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell Gambler, journalist, fervent alcoholic, four-times married Jeffrey Bernard writes the‘Low Life’ column for the Spectator magazine. Locked in The Coach and Horses in Soho overnight, he has time to reflect on a dissolute life. Good Grief is a sensitive, wryly humorous study of a middle-aged widow, coming to terms with bereavement, who finds the courage to break with the past. Mr and Mrs Nobody is an adaptation of George and Weedon Grossmith’s comic novel The Diary Of A Nobody and Mrs Pooter’s Diary. A respectable Victorian clerk has lofty social aspirations.

Keith Waterhouse: Collected Plays

Jubb

Guy Deghy

Café Royal. Ninety Years of Bohemia, Etc. [With Plates.].

ninety years of Bohemia [by] Guy Deghy and Keith Waterhouse

Cafe? Royal

Ninety Years of Bohemia

Café Royal

Keith Waterhouse is very particular about what lunch is not: 'It is not prawn cocktail, steak and Black Forest gateau with your bank manger. It is not civic, commemorative, annual office or funeral. It is not when either party is on a diet, on the wagon or in a hurry.' He is equally precise about what lunch is: 'It is a mid-day meal taken at leisure by, ideally, two people. Three's a crowd, four always split like a double amoeba into two pairs, six is a meeting, eight is a conference... A little light business may be touched upon but the occasion is firmly social. Whether they know it or not, for as long as they linger in the restaurant they are having an affair. The affair is lunch.' The Theory and Practice of Lunch is an authoritative and delightfully witty manual on the art of taking the most agreeable meal of the day, written by a shrewd observer of the passing show who listed his sole hobby in Who's Who as 'Lunch'.

The Theory and Practice of Lunch

In this sequel to Waterhouse's Billy Liar, Billy Fisher may be thirty-three but still hasn't grown out of his propensity for lying. Stuck in a loveless marriage in a dismal town, where he has a dead-end job in local government, Billy seeks escape through his affair with Helen, who is also unhappily married. But once again he finds himself in danger of being undone by his lies: vodka martinis charged to his expense account, a wise-cracking alter ego named Oscar, a false police report about a stolen set of nonexistent golf clubs, an imaginary cat named 'Mr Pussy-paws' . . . Now the all-important town festival is approaching, but instead of doing the planning, Billy is busy trying to keep ahead of the suspicions of his wife, the police, and Helen's jealous husband.

Keith Waterhouse

Books

Your next favorite book is out there