Keith Waterhouse: Passes away at 80

Keith Waterhouse: Passes away at 80

Keith Waterhouse, the creator of Billy Liar, passed away in his sleep yesterday. The author, journalist and playwright died at his home in London, at the age of eighty.

The prolific writer's most famous work - Billy Liar was made into a film starring Tom Courtenay.

"Keith Waterhouse, aged 80, died quietly in his sleep this morning," a statement issued on his family's behalf mentioned.

He was also known for writing plays such as 'Jeffrey Barnard is Unwell' and screenplays like 'Whistle Down the Wind.'

Waterhouse, as a journalist, helped to create the satirical 1960s TV series 'That Was the Week That Was.'He frequently railed against declining standards of English.

The Association for the Abolition of the Aberrant Apostrophe, which attacked poor punctuation on shopkeepers' signs and in public places, was founded by him.

Waterhouse continued writing newspaper columns at least twice a week well into his 70s, often grumbling about modern life and in particular political correctness, and hankering after the days of his youth on a Leeds council estate.

Keith Spencer Waterhouse, whose father died when he was 3, was born on February 6 1929, in a back-to-back house in Hunslet, Leeds.

His father, a heavy-drinking costermonger, left behind a total estate of a brown suit and a halfpenny in the pocket.

But Waterhouse went on to hit the heights in Fleet Street and to see his name in lights outside theatres across the world.

And he made the headlines himself in a less welcome manner in 1994.