Böcker av Keith Waterhouse

Penguin Decades bring you the novels that helped shape modern Britain. When they were published, some were bestsellers, some were considered scandalous, and others were simply misunderstood. All represent their time and helped define their generation, while today each is considered a landmark work of storytelling.Keith Waterhouse's Billy Liar was published in 1959, and captures brilliantly the claustrophobic atmosphere of a small town. It tells the story of Billy Fisher, a Yorkshire teenager unable to stop lying - especially to his three girlfriends. Trapped by his boring job and working-class parents, Billy finds that his only happiness lies in grand plans for his future and fantastical day-dreams of the fictional country Ambrosia.

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.

Keith Waterhouse's long-running column, which began appearing in the Daily Mail in 1986, won him numerous national press award. His characters Sharon and Tracy became a national institution, as did that venerable acadamy of English letters, the Association for the Annihilation of the Aberrant Apostrophe. The phlegmatic councillors of Clogthorpe and British Rail's brother-in-law Arnold are among the other regulars featured in this collection which distils the with and wisdom of a justly celebrated writer.

There is a Happy Land tells of the events of a few weeks in the life of a small boy on a north county council estate and the rhubarb fields, quarries and Cleark of Works' yard that are his playground.Unlike most boys portrayed in fiction he is not an ultrasensitive soul but an ordinary boy, occasionally cowardly, sometimes a liar, tough in his own eyes and often insecure in his dealings with others. In his evocation of the jingles, games, fantasies and nightmares of childhood, Waterhouse brings his tribe of street urchins so vividly to life that the book has taken on the status of a much-loved classic.

No London neighbourhood more resmbles the restless downstream tide of the Thames than the ragged square mile of Soho. Ask the people who live there, like Christine Yardley, drag queen by night and grey-suited accountant by day; or Len Gates, self-appointed Soho historian and bore; or Jenny Wise, former starlet and now resident lush in the New Kismet club; or even Ellis Hugo Bell, wannabe film producer who dreams of moving to L.A. Daily, nightly, shift by shift, their numbers are swelled by immigrants flocking to work, eat, drink and loiter, from kitchen staff to dress designers, hookers to pushers to punters. Down into this human rabbit warren on evening slips Alex Singer, a student from Leeds in pursuit of his errant girlfriend, whose search takes him from club to pub and into contact with a rich cross-section of Soho life. Twenty-four hours, three deaths, one fire and one mugging later, seduced, traduced and befriended, Alex is on his way to the Soho Ball. In this fast, funny and superbly crafted novel, Keith Waterhouse draws a vibrant portrait of London's liveliest quarter and it's eccentric inhabitants.

Now it can be told. The biggest majority of the Debra Chase by Herself series in the Sunday Shocker, which I am sposed to of written, was a load of rubbish, a virago of lies from start to finish.'Thus does Page Three celebrity Debra Chase set out to put the record straight about her life in the tabloid fast-lane and the early years when she was still known as Marjory Linda Chase, growing up in Seathorpe with her Dad and Step-Mum Babs, 'in those far-off days of the forgotten Seventies'.Debra tells the story of her climb to stardom from the Donna Bella Rosa School of Fashion and how she met "e;The Sir"e;, Sir Monty Pratt, the 'bonking baronet' who so adored her and who was so compromised by that story in the Shocker. She reveals the Debra Chase Diet Muffin Scandal and her part in it, as well as her on-off affair with hunky goal-ace, Brian Boffe. By turns outrageously funny and uncannily affecting, BIMBO is a masterpiece of entertainment and virtuoso characterisation from one of our finest novelists.

An exhuberant comedy which is yet a sad commentary on twentieth-century bureaucracy. The Hesseltines are living in property well overdue for demolition and they are looking forward to being re-housed in more beautiful and salutory surroundings. The crisis comes when they find that, far from a house with a little bit of garden, they are to live in a warrenous block of flats.|3 women, 6 men

A sensitive, wryly humorous study of a middle-aged widow who finds the courage to break with the past. June keeps a diary in the form of private conversations with her late husband Sam, a national newspaper editor. Her stepdaughter, Pauline, determines to keep an eye on June. Likewise, Eric Grant, an ex-colleague of Sam's. But June strikes out on her own and befriends Duggie, who, like June, is lonely. June, however, discovers that Pauline, Eric and Duggie have their own hidden agenda.2 women, 2 men

Who's Who takes place in the lounge of a Brighton hotel a place of faded elegance where the inevitable trio saw away playing sad and dated ballads. In the first act we follow the confusion that Mr. Black and Mr. White land themselves in as inextricable as the hotel itself in their efforts to cover up a clandestine weekend; a confusion which ends in no one knowing anyone else's identity and a hint that, even when things have more or less cleared up, it's likely to start all over again. In the second act the male leads discuss the previous events and Mr. White says that if positions and identities had been reversed the confusion would never have happened. 2 women, 2 men

Pulling himself out of the rut of his middle-aged executive lifestyle, Roger Piper stumbles into a sixteen-month tempestuous affair with the effervescent Angela Caxton, and is thrown into a whirlwind of romances and champagne. He discovers that Angie does not share his obsession with their relationship and after multiple crises the affair ends in tragedy.|3 women, 4 men

Following the successful television series based on Barbara Euphan Todd''s children''s classic, Keith Waterhouse, Willis Hall and Denis King bring us a new, effervescent stage musical of the story of Worzel Gummidge. The naughty, petulant, greedy, yet always lovable scarecrow is here with all the familiar characters: Aunt Sally, Sergeant Beetroot and Sue and John. Brought to life by the Crowman, Worzel creates havoc and farce wherever he goes in his frenzied efforts to win Aunt Sally''s unwilling hand until he finds himself before the scarecrow court on a very serious charge. But the final resolution is a happy one with a birthday cake enormous enough to satisfy even Worzel''s appetite!|5 women, 13 men

The Wedding and The Funeral make up the two parts of this comedy in which we are introduced to the same family, first making preparations for a wedding and subsequently, six months later, returning from the funeral of their Uncle Arthur, a lovable personality who provides the link between the two plays.|7 women, 7 men

A hectic children''s birthday party provides a noisy background to a series of domestic crises. Robin has left Emma and Emma has become friendly with her solicitor, Tom; both Tom and Robin arrive for the celebrations. The mishaps of the party spill over into the kitchen''situation, the behaviour of the young visitors affecting the adults. By the end of the party however, thin''s look a little brighter for Robin and Emma.|4 women, 3 men

A hard-headed but often hilarious guide to the pleasures and pitfalls of travel by one of Britain's favourite writers.

Gambler, journalist, fervent alcoholic and four-times married Jeffrey Bernard writes the "Low Life" column for the Spectator magazine chronicling Soho life as well as offering a very personal philosophy on vodka, women and race-courses. From this, Keith Waterhouse has brilliantly constructed a play (the title being the euphemism used by the Spectator when Bernard is incapable of writing his column) which is set in the saloon bar of Bernard's favourite Soho pub, the Coach and Horses. Having passed out in the lavatory, Bernard awakes in the early hours of the morning to find himself alone and in the dark. Unable to contact the landlord, he is resigned to spending the rest of the night with a bottle of vodka and an endless chain of cigarettes, narrating a story of hilarious anecdotes and witty reminiscences which are enacted by two actors and two actresses who bring to life the various characters who populate Jeff 's world. Starring Peter O'Toole, later succeeded by Tom Conti then James Bolam, the play enjoyed a hugely successful run at the Apollo Theatre, London.