British Comedy Guide

Keith Waterhouse

  • English
  • Writer

Keith Waterhouse - Billy Liar

Keith Waterhouse - Billy Liar

For William 'Billy' Fisher, an energetic imagination makes life tolerable, but well-nigh intolerable for all around him. He lies his way into and out of every situation, making any promise to get him out of trouble, thereby creating ever more tortuous entanglements to be wriggled out of in the future.

Billy dreams of escaping the dull drudgery of his life at home with his parents and grandmother in the monotony of his stifling Yorkshire hometown. He has three fiancées and a truly dead-end job as an undertaker's clerk, but dreams of becoming a writer for a comedian and escaping his everyday life. Unable to separate fantasy from reality, Billy becomes embroiled in a mess no lie will eradicate; the web of lies will bring many a chuckle to listeners, but will the outcome of his mistruths be quite as funny to Billy?

First released: Thursday 1st January 1959

  • Published: Thursday 6th August 2015
  • Publisher: Penguin Books
  • Pages: 176
  • Catalogue: 9780241973646

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  • Published: Thursday 1st April 2010
  • Publisher: Penguin Books
  • Download: 3.88mb

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  • Published: Thursday 10th February 2011
  • Minutes: 370

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  • Released: Thursday 4th November 2010
  • Discs: 7
  • Minutes: 370
  • Catalogue: 9781906147761

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