Billy Liar - Keith Waterhouse

The 1963 film Billy Liar, starring Tom Courtenay, has long been one of my favourites. There was also a TV series in the seventies of which I have fond memories. Yet for some reason I've never got round to reading the original novel. My loss. Billy Fisher is a teenager from a dull working class family in Stradhoughton, a dull working class Northern town. He lives with his family and works as a clerk in the local undertakers. Like many people, he finds solace in fantasy and escapes from his dreary life in to daydreams. Billy's daydreams are on a rather grander scale than most and he has developed a whole country called Ambrosia. In Ambrosia he can - ...  Read the complete review

I invite you to enter the kingdom of Ambrosia - a fantasy land invented by it's beloved President: Billy Fisher, in order to escape from the boring Yorkshire town of Stradhoughton in the 1950's. Billy is a compulsive liar - no, that's too harsh, he's a compulsive fantasist. Not so much an angry young man, as a feckless one. (I can't help wondering, what does 'feckless' mean in Ireland?) The book chronicles the events of one fateful Saturday during which all of Billy's lies begin to catch up with him. As well as daydreaming the day away in his beloved Ambrosia he spends most of his time thinking. (No, ...  Read the complete review