What do you think?
Rate this book
What's in It for Walter
224 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1942
3 people want to read
About the author
Frank Tilsley
53 books4 followersFRANK TILSLEY (1904–1957) British Novelist and Broadcaster
Portrait by Howard Coster (1938) ; Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Frank Vincent Tilsley was a British novelist, born in Lancashire on 5 May 1904. He grew up in Manchester, where he was educated at Chapel Street Council School, Levenshulme. After working in various capacities, including as an accountant's clerk and a schoolteacher, he became a full-time author following the success of his first novel, Plebeian's Progress (1933). Frank Tilsley was a realist yet with a great understanding and compassion for human beings. The 1930s were the great age of working-class literature, and the work was highly valued for the authenticity of its critical depiction of working-class conditions in a period of economic depression. He published some twenty subsequent novels, which based their robustly straightforward narratives on detailed reportage of contemporary social conditions. Titles include She Was There Too (1938), Pleasure Beach (1944), Champion Road (1948), Heaven and Herbert Common (1953), and Brother Nap (1954). Tilsley was also a frequent radio broadcaster and from 1950 onward won considerable acclaim as a television dramatist. He was a staunch socialist all his life, a fully paid-up member of the Labour Party, and personal friend to Nye Bevan and H. G. Wells, who was godfather to my aunt. In 1939 The Labour Book service published his book of of social and political philosophy, We Live and Learn.
He was too young to fight in WWI, but lost an elder brother and an uncle, which affected him profoundly. He was too old to fight in WWII, but was a proud member of the Home Guard. He was already writing articles about the war for the ‘Manchester Guardian’, as it was then known before the name was shortened to ‘The Guardian’, and he was then posted to the RAF as a war correspondent. He was stationed with Coastal Command and given the nominal rank of Squadron Leader so that he could access all areas. He was an observer on many missions.
His time with the RAF gave him new subject matter for his stories. Boys of Coastal published in 1945, under the name Squadron Leader Frank Tilsley, is a selection of poignant short stories about Coastal Command, illustrated with black & white photographs. It is based on the experiences of aircrews and ground-staff, written by him with intimate knowledge of its operation and of its people. He used two writing pseudonyms during this time because of the controversial subject matter of the work: Little Man This Now was first published in 1940 under the pseudonym XYZ and its existence was only discovered in 1975. Set in Germany during the years 1934-1939 it is a story about the increasing influence of Nazism and its powerful hold on ordinary people. The Land Is Bright, published in 1946 under the pseudonym Francis Heaton-Chapel, is a novel about an RAF pilot who suffers from panic attacks and branded a coward. In fact many of his novels around that time are set to a backdrop of WWII - Jim Comes Home (1945) and Peggy Windsor and the American Soldier (1946) in particular, and the ones that followed against a backdrop of grim, post-war austerity.
Not all his novels were contemporary. Mutiny, published in 1958, tells the story of the great Spithead Mutiny in the British fleet in 1797, and was adapted for screen. The film H.M.S. Defiant, starring Alec Guinness and Dirk Bogarde, was released in 1962. It was released as Damn the Defiant! in the United States.
Frank Tilsley is also credited with being the writer of the first ‘soap opera’ for television, The Makepeace Story, a saga about a Lancashire cotton family serialised in 1955, and gaining an audience of eight million viewers, a precursor to ‘Coronation Street’. Corrie also owes thanks to Frank Tilsley for giving its creator the name of one of the soap’s more famous families.
He was instrumental in the early days of the BBC, and at the time of his tragically ea
Portrait by Howard Coster (1938) ; Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Frank Vincent Tilsley was a British novelist, born in Lancashire on 5 May 1904. He grew up in Manchester, where he was educated at Chapel Street Council School, Levenshulme. After working in various capacities, including as an accountant's clerk and a schoolteacher, he became a full-time author following the success of his first novel, Plebeian's Progress (1933). Frank Tilsley was a realist yet with a great understanding and compassion for human beings. The 1930s were the great age of working-class literature, and the work was highly valued for the authenticity of its critical depiction of working-class conditions in a period of economic depression. He published some twenty subsequent novels, which based their robustly straightforward narratives on detailed reportage of contemporary social conditions. Titles include She Was There Too (1938), Pleasure Beach (1944), Champion Road (1948), Heaven and Herbert Common (1953), and Brother Nap (1954). Tilsley was also a frequent radio broadcaster and from 1950 onward won considerable acclaim as a television dramatist. He was a staunch socialist all his life, a fully paid-up member of the Labour Party, and personal friend to Nye Bevan and H. G. Wells, who was godfather to my aunt. In 1939 The Labour Book service published his book of of social and political philosophy, We Live and Learn.
He was too young to fight in WWI, but lost an elder brother and an uncle, which affected him profoundly. He was too old to fight in WWII, but was a proud member of the Home Guard. He was already writing articles about the war for the ‘Manchester Guardian’, as it was then known before the name was shortened to ‘The Guardian’, and he was then posted to the RAF as a war correspondent. He was stationed with Coastal Command and given the nominal rank of Squadron Leader so that he could access all areas. He was an observer on many missions.
His time with the RAF gave him new subject matter for his stories. Boys of Coastal published in 1945, under the name Squadron Leader Frank Tilsley, is a selection of poignant short stories about Coastal Command, illustrated with black & white photographs. It is based on the experiences of aircrews and ground-staff, written by him with intimate knowledge of its operation and of its people. He used two writing pseudonyms during this time because of the controversial subject matter of the work: Little Man This Now was first published in 1940 under the pseudonym XYZ and its existence was only discovered in 1975. Set in Germany during the years 1934-1939 it is a story about the increasing influence of Nazism and its powerful hold on ordinary people. The Land Is Bright, published in 1946 under the pseudonym Francis Heaton-Chapel, is a novel about an RAF pilot who suffers from panic attacks and branded a coward. In fact many of his novels around that time are set to a backdrop of WWII - Jim Comes Home (1945) and Peggy Windsor and the American Soldier (1946) in particular, and the ones that followed against a backdrop of grim, post-war austerity.
Not all his novels were contemporary. Mutiny, published in 1958, tells the story of the great Spithead Mutiny in the British fleet in 1797, and was adapted for screen. The film H.M.S. Defiant, starring Alec Guinness and Dirk Bogarde, was released in 1962. It was released as Damn the Defiant! in the United States.
Frank Tilsley is also credited with being the writer of the first ‘soap opera’ for television, The Makepeace Story, a saga about a Lancashire cotton family serialised in 1955, and gaining an audience of eight million viewers, a precursor to ‘Coronation Street’. Corrie also owes thanks to Frank Tilsley for giving its creator the name of one of the soap’s more famous families.
He was instrumental in the early days of the BBC, and at the time of his tragically ea
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 22, 2020
Who would have thought that someone could write a book about a pianist trying to do a 100 hour marathon on the piano? On the face of it, that hardly sounds very interesting but in Frank Tilsley's capable hands this is a fascinating book and held my interest all the way through. In fact, by the time I was nearing the end, I could hardly wait to find out what happened.
I can certainly recommend this book (written in 1942). To say that it took my mind off the dreaded Coronavirus, shows how the book kept me entertained from beginning to end.
I can certainly recommend this book (written in 1942). To say that it took my mind off the dreaded Coronavirus, shows how the book kept me entertained from beginning to end.
Displaying 1 of 1 review