Billy Liar (Penguin Decades)

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His humor is exhilarating, even when it is dark – maybe especially then – as exemplified by what he wants to put on his tombstone – ‘here lies Billy Fisher’ – in recognition of the lies he cannot help himself from spitting out repeatedly – these range from the serious, maintaining he has a job with the famous comedian Billy Boone and he is going to London, to the futile, pretending he has a dog, sister, even presenting The Witch aka Barbara, one of his three girlfriends, to the mother of his best friend and infuriating her by saying this is his sibling and the woman retorts that she knows Barbara and this lie is insulting. If you're in any more trouble, Billy, it's not something you can leave behind you, you know. You put it in your suitcase, and you take it with you." His habitual embroidery of the truth, has left him tangled in a web of pointless lies. He has told: Billy Liar is a 1959 novel by Keith Waterhouse [1] that was later adapted into a play, a film, a musical and a TV series. The work has inspired and been featured in a number of popular songs. Some have described Billy Liar as a coming-of-age novel. This is true in the sense that Billy certainly falls within the age group transitioning from teenage innocence to adult responsibility. However, it’s no Bildungsroman , which Wikipedia defines as “a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood (coming of age), in which character change is important.”

How unusual is Massimine’s allergy to the truth? Dr Curtis and Dr Hart drew on research conducted in 2010 to calculate how many Americans habitually lie. It showed 60% said they told no lies in the previous 24 hours. On average, people told 1.65 lies (half-truths?) in the previous 24 hours except for 5.3% of the population who just couldn’t stop. They told an average of 15 lies a day. Out of this group, the two doctors have put together a psychological profile, a pathology they want included in the DSMMM.the Poulson and Birmingham Corruption Trials were dominating the news at the time); there is also a dig at the Birminham One-Way Traffic system, when a marching band supposed to provide the high point to a procession is forced to detour round the town centre so that nobody sees it!

At the dawn of the 1960s, Britain was still generally a repressed, conformist world, and this world is even more stifling and claustrophobic in the small fictional town of Stradhoughton in Yorkshire (somewhere to the north of Leeds). It is no coincidence, therefore, that Liz is the only person with whom Billy shares “Ambrosia.” She encourages his fantasies, even appearing in several of them as his wife or official aide. These are expressions of his rebellion against the world of his parents and grandparents, bolstered and informed by his grammar school education. The film portrays the New World, for better or worse, as fundamentally disruptive. It will inevitably fall to Billy, therefore, to make a choice between its promises and his responsibilities at home. Duty vs Freedom In the novel, the philosophy of Stradhoughton's stoic survivors is summed up by a pub singer: "Now I think that life is merry, / And I think that life is fun, / A short life and a happy one, / Is my rule number one, / I laugh when it is raining, / I laugh when it is fine, / You may think that I am foolish, / But laughter is my line …"

The offices

Intriguingly there’s more to it than this, because William Fisher is also the greatest OCD hero in English fiction and maybe he needs resurrecting. He exhibits a range of classic tics. He tells us that he has to repeat the phrase da da da da da da over and again to get unwelcome thoughts out of his head. He tries to feel normal by counting, and that he can get as far as the number 3000 without even stopping. His tactic to get out of the counting loop is to insert strange numbers and odd phrases like the Lord is my Shepherd . I thought I was the only one who did this. The interior secondary monologue for my own amusement, since when I manage to say out loud what I think is great fun and such an amazing observation--it turns out I am as alone as the little prince on his lonely planet. The title of the song " Twisterella" is also the title of a song that Billy co-writes in the novel. Billy Liar , Waterhouse’s second novel, catapulted him to fame and success. It became a BAFTA nominated film, directed by John Schlesinger and starring Tom Courtenay and Judy Christie. There was also a play with Albert Finney in the title role and, of course, a television series both here and in the US. When the musical opened in the West End, it starred Michael Crawford and Elaine Paige in her West End debut. But now, it is almost forgotten.