Billy Liar – Keith Waterhouse

I think I might have read this at school when I was about 14. Lord knows what I made of it, a grimly hilarious and touching portrayal of adolescent life in a 1950s working class town. The film version understandably makes much of Billy’s fantasy life, but it isn’t quite as significant here. 

I was surprised at the sheer quality of the writing. How about “frowning women, their black, scratched handbags crammed with half-digested grievances”.