Bill Naughton (1910-1992) was born in Ballyhaunis, Co. Mayo and moved to Bolton, Lancashire aged four, where he remained the rest of his life. He is best known for his novel Alfie which became a classic film of the 1960s and for plays such as Spring and Port Wine. He has written short stories, novels (On the Pig’s Back) and children’s books and three volumes of autobiography, the last entitled Neither Use nor Ornament is in Allison & Busby’s Twentieth Century Classics series.