Talk:Billy Liar

Comment

When Billy Liar's job starts getting boring, his dreams get the better of him. Always living in his own fantasy world, gets him into trouble as he starts to bend the truth slightly and exaggerate. He finds himself engaged to atleast two girlfriends, even though his family disapprove and his idea of reality is somewhat far-fetched. Billy's two girlfriends, Rita and Barbara fight for his hand in marriage, or the ring. Whilst getting himself tied up in lie after lie, Billy always manages to think his way out of it and eventually realises the girl who shares the same concept on life as him is Liz. Who is seen as his soul-mate, free-willed and carefree, she invites him to go away and get married to her. Even though he would like nothing better than to do this, Billy Liar is unable to, as his own personality gets the better of him. By Sophie Usher

Novel vs Play

The "Characters" section makes several references to the play: e.g. "Florence falls ill in Act 2 and is taken upstairs. By Act 3 she has died." Since the article is primarily about the novel, these need to be rewritten (and perhaps the play needs its own article). I'll try to do this at some point, unless anyone else gets there first.. AndrewWTaylor 10:23, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I noticed this myself. Although - after a year. PatGallacher (talk) 01:14, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

So much for that New Year's resolution... AndrewWTaylor (talk) 13:33, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

And it's almost all unreferenced. Parking a URL here that will be useful for rewriting the article. --ColinFine (talk) 21:51, 13 May 2016 (UTC)

Almost 19 years on, I've now addressed some of these issues. I've added a plot synopsis (based strictly on the novel), and significantly pruned the "Characters" section, in particular removing details that appear to belong only to the play. As well as mentions of "Acts", these included Billy's age as 19 (mentioned nowhere in the novel that I can see); his mother's first name as "Alice" (the only clue in the novel is a letter she has written to Housewives' Choice, which is signed "(Mrs.) N. Fisher"); and his grandmother's name as Florence Boothroyd (referred to in the novel only as "Gran"). GrindtXX (talk) 14:13, 22 December 2025 (UTC)

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