Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse  (3)
£5.99
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Review
When this barbed and witty novel was originally published in 1988, it earned a place on the Sunday Express Book of the Year shortlist for its hugely prolific author, a man equally at home in journalism, autobiography, fiction and non-fiction. Chronicling the development of a compelling yet infuriating relationship between Roger Piper and the much younger Angela Caxton, it takes the form of a very candid confession. The first-person ruminations unfold, provoking groans and rueful shakes of the head as the previously sensible Roger descends into the inevitable spiral associated with such all-consuming affairs of the heart and the flesh. Roger's wife Judith finds one of his 'insufficiently incinerated' letters to the former target of his affections, which he swiftly explains away as nothing more than discarded dialogue from a novel he's working on. He then embarks on a mostly bitter, sometimes sweet, precis of how and where he first met Angela, a 'right little cow' with a promising career as 'a full-time gold-digger', who provokes disapproval in everyone except the many men she ensnares with her well-worn wiles. Discovering her and his growing desire for her is perfect for Roger, who's very much in the middle of everything: life, management, age, the road - you name it, he's scathing about his position in it. He unlovingly tells of a world full of what-ifs and under-achieving double-glazing advertising accounts, of being an outsider witnessing the sexual frisson among the young bucks in crushingly crowded West End wine bars. A jumble of contradictory emotions is brilliantly portrayed by Waterhouse, who manages to maintain our sympathy with poor old Roger, who always seems to be aware that he really should know better and just give in to his 'craving for the clean taste of Ovaltine'. (Kirkus UK)
Review
‘You stay gripped from the opening paragraph … Waterhouse offers us the unsparing image of Everyman and Everywoman in the humiliating throes of irrational passion. Our Song crackles with insight about the nature of sexual obsession’ (Val Hennessy, Daily Mail )
‘Waterhouse perfectly captures the excitement and tantrums of an illicit affair’ (Today )
'There is no denying the virtuoso skill with which Keith Waterhouse plays out the whole saga ... by turns caustic, cryptic, funny and fatuous. It is a splendid read.' (William Henry Holmes, Sunday Telegraph )
'It says much for the humour and wit of this novel that its author can sustain an epistolary form for over two hundred pages without losing any of his cracking pace.' (Literary Review )
'With ghastly humour throughout a novel wrapped in the brown paper covers of middle-class guilt, Waterhouse provides a painful but complete guide to the illicit affair.' (Mail on Sunday )
'A jumle of contradictory emotions is brilliantly portrayed.' (The Good Book Guide )
See all Product Description
When this barbed and witty novel was originally published in 1988, it earned a place on the Sunday Express Book of the Year shortlist for its hugely prolific author, a man equally at home in journalism, autobiography, fiction and non-fiction. Chronicling the development of a compelling yet infuriating relationship between Roger Piper and the much younger Angela Caxton, it takes the form of a very candid confession. The first-person ruminations unfold, provoking groans and rueful shakes of the head as the previously sensible Roger descends into the inevitable spiral associated with such all-consuming affairs of the heart and the flesh. Roger's wife Judith finds one of his 'insufficiently incinerated' letters to the former target of his affections, which he swiftly explains away as nothing more than discarded dialogue from a novel he's working on. He then embarks on a mostly bitter, sometimes sweet, precis of how and where he first met Angela, a 'right little cow' with a promising career as 'a full-time gold-digger', who provokes disapproval in everyone except the many men she ensnares with her well-worn wiles. Discovering her and his growing desire for her is perfect for Roger, who's very much in the middle of everything: life, management, age, the road - you name it, he's scathing about his position in it. He unlovingly tells of a world full of what-ifs and under-achieving double-glazing advertising accounts, of being an outsider witnessing the sexual frisson among the young bucks in crushingly crowded West End wine bars. A jumble of contradictory emotions is brilliantly portrayed by Waterhouse, who manages to maintain our sympathy with poor old Roger, who always seems to be aware that he really should know better and just give in to his 'craving for the clean taste of Ovaltine'. (Kirkus UK)
Review
‘You stay gripped from the opening paragraph … Waterhouse offers us the unsparing image of Everyman and Everywoman in the humiliating throes of irrational passion. Our Song crackles with insight about the nature of sexual obsession’ (Val Hennessy, Daily Mail )
‘Waterhouse perfectly captures the excitement and tantrums of an illicit affair’ (Today )
'There is no denying the virtuoso skill with which Keith Waterhouse plays out the whole saga ... by turns caustic, cryptic, funny and fatuous. It is a splendid read.' (William Henry Holmes, Sunday Telegraph )
'It says much for the humour and wit of this novel that its author can sustain an epistolary form for over two hundred pages without losing any of his cracking pace.' (Literary Review )
'With ghastly humour throughout a novel wrapped in the brown paper covers of middle-class guilt, Waterhouse provides a painful but complete guide to the illicit affair.' (Mail on Sunday )
'A jumle of contradictory emotions is brilliantly portrayed.' (The Good Book Guide )
See all Product Description
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