Keith Waterhouse

[SteveT]

I heard on R4 this morning that Keith Waterhouse will be sadly missed.

For those who are unaware of this writing colossus he took over the Cassandra column in the Mirror, and wrote Billy Liar which became a film starring Tom Courtney.

There is a Happy Land, which was made into a TV production all about children, including a terrifyingly real 'uncle mad' who was the local nutter and child molester.

He later moved to the Mail and continued his good works.

He was one of my favourite columnists of the time.

[HonaloochieB]

I read and enjoyed lots of his books, I remember as well a column he did for the Mirror in a glossy mag they gave away once a week, probably early 70s. His comparison of being a teenager in his day to when he was writing the piece still stays with me.

I paraphrase, "there's a photo of me when I was fifteen with my father and my grandfather. Each of us clad in grey looking suits and each cupping a Woodbine into our palm. Were it not for the difference in heights we could have been triplets"

He also pre-Trussed Lynne by founding the Association for the Abolition of Aberrant Apostrophes. At least I think that's what it was called. Anyway he used to rail against poor punctuation and wrote English Our English And How To Sing It.

But mostly he made me laugh, think and in the case of the book written about the affair whose name escapes me, cry.

Thanks Keith.

[siousxiesue]

No-one else at work knew who I was talking about :(

[SteveT]

These kids of today siousxiesue, they know nothing.

[SimonM]

Waterhouse was just a fabulous writer...novels, plays, journalism, television...I loved him in the (then) "Daily Mirror" and also in Punch. Although "Billy Liar" was his most famous creation I think "There Is A Happy Land" made a much deeper impression on me when I first read it. For the ignorant kids of today I suppose some of them might have heard of Wurzel Gummidge? :))

[Jah Lush]

Keith Waterhouse was a brilliant writer/journalist and a legend of Fleet Street. His weekly columns in the Daily Mirror and later on The Daily Mail were always worth reading. The Mirror was his spiritual home but left because he refused to work for the late bouncing Czech Robert Maxwell.

I loved Billy Liar, a brilliantly funny novel which I've probably read three times and it's a very rare thing for me to read a book more than once. He also adapted the writings of Jeffrey Bernard for the stage with Peter O'Toole in the starring role in Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell which I was lucky enough to go and see when it first opened at the Apollo Theatre in the West End.

He also wrote the scripts for film classics such as Whistle Down The Wind and A Kind Of Loving as well as contributing to the satirical 1960s TV series That Was The Week That Was.

He liked a drink and rather than slurp in the bars of Fleet Street he found the drinking dens of Soho much more to his liking. His hobby listed in Who's Who was simply "Lunch". Top bloke. R.I.P Keith.

[flapjackdavey]

Billy Liar is one of my favourite books .... and the film is brilliant too .... loads of quotes

"Billy Billy we're engaged to be married if you did but know it"

"... oooh Billy , will you have an nice orange ? "

" YOU AND YOUR BLOODY ORANGES ! !"

" A man can loose himself in London , Looooooosse himself in LAAAANDANNNNN ! "

" its neither mickling nor muckling is it Counciler Duxbury ?"

" Are thee takin the rise out of me young man ? "

how do I know all this ... oh my brain :)

[SteveT]

When I first saw Billy Liar in my youth I found it irksome, twenty years later I loved it.

[Tony.London Suburbs]

Really fine Human Being and delighful company.

R.I.P. Keith.

[Tony.London Suburbs]

Tony.London Suburbs Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

Really fine Human Being and delighful company.

His Column was a "must read" for Decades.

R.I.P. Keith.

[flapjackdavey]

SteveT Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> When I first saw Billy Liar in my youth I found it

> irksome, twenty years later I loved it.

think I must have been in my youth when I first saw it , I loved it .... I wonder if it would have the reverse effect if I saw it now,i.e I might find it irksome , I would hope not .

Tom Courtney and Julie Christie were brilliant .