- Willis Hall
Willis Hall (
6 April 1929 -7 March 2005 ) was an Englishplaywright andradio andtelevision writer who drew on his working classLeeds roots in much of his material.His most famous creation was probably "
Billy Liar " (1960), co-written with life-long friend and collaboratorKeith Waterhouse . However, his rise to fame came from his play about British soldiers in the Malayan jungle "The Long and the Short and the Tall ".He wrote a musical about the scarecrow, Worzel Gummidge, he also wrote musicals on the books, Treasure Island and The Wind in the Willows.
He wrote more than a dozen children's books, including a series about a family called the Hollins who meet a vegetarian vampire called Count Alucard. He also wrote 40 radio and television plays, as well as contributing to many TV series, including
The Return of the Antelope . He was married for a time to the actressJill Bennett .Willis Hall died aged 75 in Ilkley, Yorkshire, he had been a member of the Magic Circle and used his skills and knowledge in the Count Alucard books.
External links
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,1436021,00.html Obituary] at [http://www.guardian.co.uk The Guardian]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.