British novelist and comedy screenwriter of the 1950's and 60's, the son of a civil servant. He was educated at Manchester University and New College, Oxford. He commenced his writing career working for Punch Magazine, also making ends meet as a schoolteacher at Chertsey, Surrey, and then as a lecturer in English and Current Affairs at the Naval College in Sheerness, Kent. His best-known film work was based on his two novels
Private's Progress (1956) and "Private Life" (filmed as
I'm All Right Jack (1959).
