Local Faces - Keith Waterhouse CBE (1929-2009)

I should have added Keith Waterhouse to the blog last week, his memorial service was on the 16th. There's a very similar picture to this on his memorial order of service.

There are many pages on the internet about his life but my favourite is the fact that he was the Life President of the Association for the Annihilation of the Aberrant Apostrophe or AAAA for short.
"pound's of apple's and orange's" in greengrocers' shops

Possibly his first published work was as a contributor to the Mill Hill Youth Club magazine. In fact he borrowed a copy of one edition from one of the embroiderers, who went to the same club, during the making of the Tapestry.

The piece was machine embroidered on printed fabric by Janet Taylor who, after the Leeds Tapestry was finished went on to oversee the Horbury Tapestry.
Like the embroidery of Willis Hall, the Keith Waterhouse piece was sponsored by the Yorkshire Post

Local Faces - Willis Hall (1929-2005)

I think there will have to be two postings today. Something happened in Hunslet in the 1930s, the friendship of three families, the Halls, the O'Tooles and the Waterhouses.

Willis Hall was a prodigious writer with works including 'The Long and the Short and the Tall' and the Vampire series of children's books. He started writing professionally at the age of 12 when he would attend weddings and funerals for the now defunct Leeds Guardian, noting down the guests and mourners.

Both he and Keith Waterhouse had successful separate writing careers but when Billy Liar, the book, was published Willis contacted his friend, suggesting it would make a fine play. This was the beginning of a prodigious collaborative play writing phase in both of their lives.

The piece was hand stitched on printed fabric by Val Gomersall (6.5 hours) and was sponsored by the Yorkshire Post.