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.
I've always wanted to be what I have become, a journey-man writer...I was very influenced by Bennett and Priestley, who could turn their hands to anything. I never had any sort of program at all.
If it had turned out that Jon had an aversion to scarecrows, or if he
had complained in a huff that he couldn't see how his distinguished
head could be mistaken for a turnip, we probably would have dropped the
project there and then. Worzel Gummidge (1979) was
Jon Pertwee and Jon Pertwee was Worzel Gummidge (1979).