His entry in "Who's Who" listed "lunch" as his sole recreational activity.
Newspaper columnist and prolific author of books, plays, and TV scripts.
Journalist, playwright, screenwriter and novelist, best known for the diverting novel "Billy Liar", the story of a Saturday in the life of a Walter Mitty-like undertaker's clerk.
He and his partner Willis Hall contributed, uncredited, to the script of Torn Curtain.