British novelist and playwright Keith Waterhouse, author of 'Billy Liar,' dies at 80
LONDON
British novelist and playwright Keith Waterhouse has died at the age of 80.
The writer's family says he died peacefully in his sleep early Friday.
A versatile writer with a strong streak of curmudgeonly humor, Waterhouse was known for the novel "Billy Liar," which became a film starring Tom Courtenay. He also wrote screenplays including "Whistle Down the Wind" and plays such as "Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell."
He also was a journalist who helped create the satirical 1960s TV series "That Was the Week That Was" and wrote a long-running column in the Daily Mail newspaper.
Waterhouse frequently railed against declining standards of English. He founded the Association for the Abolition of the Aberrant Apostrophe, which attacked poor punctuation on shopkeepers' signs.
(This version CORRECTS spelling graf 3 to "Bernard" sted "Barnard.")
