Keith Waterhouse
Keith Waterhouse was a prominent British playwright, novelist, and journalist, known for his fruitful collaboration with fellow writer Willis Hall, with whom he formed a dynamic partnership often referred to as "the Writing Factory." Born in 1929 in Leeds, England, Waterhouse came from a working-class background and pursued his education at the Leeds College of Commerce before serving in the Royal Air Force. After moving to London in 1951, he made a name for himself as a newspaper columnist and critic. His literary career includes the acclaimed novel "Billy Liar" (1960), which he adapted into both a play and a film, marking a significant milestone in his career.
Waterhouse's works often explore themes of working-class life and are infused with humor, attracting a predominantly male audience. He is also noted for creating adaptations inspired by other literary works, such as "The Diary of Nobody." While his extensive output has garnered mixed critical reviews, he has been praised for his contributions to British literature, with some critics recognizing him as one of the best living British writers. Overall, Keith Waterhouse's legacy lies in his ability to blend social commentary with entertainment, making him a beloved figure in contemporary British writing.
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Keith Waterhouse
Author
- Born: February 6, 1929
- Birthplace: Leeds, England
- Died: September 4, 2009
- Place of death: London, England
Biography
As a playwright, Keith Waterhouse’s name is usually linked with that of his collaborator, Willis Hall, with whom he grew up in Leeds, Yorkshire, England. Their fruitful collaboration has led to their being called “the Writing Factory.”
Waterhouse was born into a working-class family in 1929. He was not university educated but received his formal education at the Leeds College of Commerce, which he attended before fulfilling his military obligation in the Royal Air Force. With this obligation behind him, he returned to Yorkshire, where he worked as a journalist until he moved to London in 1951. In London, he distinguished himself as a newspaper columnist and critic.
Waterhouse is well known as a novelist, although he functions equally effectively as a playwright. His first novel, There Is a Happy Land (1957), is a nostalgic reflection on childhood in his native Yorkshire. In his next novel, Billy Liar (1960), he found his true métier. This book led Waterhouse to his first collaboration with Hall, with whom he adapted the novel as a play and a film. He also published a sequel, Billy Liar on the Moon (1975), and went on to publish more than a dozen additional novels as well as two autobiographical volumes, two handbooks on writing style that have grown out of his work as a journalist, and collections of his newspaper columns.
His enthusiasm for George and Weedon Grossmith’s novel The Diary of Nobody (1892) led him to create three works around it: a play entitled Mr. and Mrs. Nobody, a comic diary entitled Mrs. Pooter’s Diary, and The Collected Letters of a Nobody. He also created a play from Jeffrey Bernard’s newspaper columns, Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell, a comedy that was very well received by audiences, particularly male audiences. Women generally have responded less enthusiastically to Waterhouse’s writing than their male counterparts.
The three Hall-Waterhouse collaborations that followed Billy Liar all focused on the working-class people whom both authors knew well from their formative days in Leeds. These plays featured social commentary leavened by humor and were extremely popular with audiences, as were such outright farces as Say Who You Are, Who’s Who, and the hilarious Whoops-a-Daisy. In 1964, impressed by the exceptional success of the comic production Beyond the Fringe, Hall and Waterhouse attempted a similar production with England, Our England. Although their play did not gain the international audience that Beyond the Fringe attracted, it was an unmitigated success in London.
The very quantity of Waterhouse’s writing has left some critics abashed and has led to mixed reviews of his work. However, one notable critic, Auberon Waugh, has called him the best living British writer. Despite critics’ opinions, the public, especially the male segment of the public, has relished Waterhouse’s work and his collaborations.