Suffocating in small-town Yorkshire, 19-year-old Billy Fisher uses fantasy to escape the monotony of family and working-class life. Or, as he prefers to describe it, uses "number 1 type thinking" ("voluntary") to lull him out of "number 2 type thinking" – which one might describe as involuntary, and borderline neurotic.

In Ambrosia, land of Billy's "number 1" creation (where he is prime minister), he can have his family beheaded or assume the crown of the world's greatest lover. But his real-life ambition is to write scripts for a famous comedian (never mind that this likelihood, entirely exaggerated, fills Billy with dread).

Inevitably, Billy's delusions and the reality he fears have blurred to the point of indistinguishability, until his compulsive lies land him in sticky circumstances, particularly concerning girlfriends – two to whom he's engaged and another who could be his true love.

With his boyish charm – from the wordplay ("Shadrack had a habit of hoarding words and dropping them into a sentence when they got too heavy") to the characterisation ("One of Gran's peculiarities … was that she would never address anyone directly but always went through an intermediary, if necessary some static object such as a cupboard") – Billy is a lively raconteur, with an unmistakably northern humour. But like all the best comedy, its tragedy rings true for a much wider audience.

An instant hit on its first publication in 1959, Billy Liar has been adapted as a play, musical, TV series, American sitcom and even a film starring Tom Courtenay and Julie Christie. This edition features a cover design by Peter Blake and an introduction by Blake Morrison.