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Robert Westerby (3 July 1909 in Hackney, England – 16 November 1968 in Los Angeles County, California, United States), was a writer of novels (published by Arthur Barker of London) and screenwriter for films and television.
Robert Westerby (born 3 July 1909 in Hackney, England, died 16 November 1968 in Los Angeles County, California, United States), was an author of novels (published by Arthur Barker of London) and screenwriter for films and television.
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Westerby's 1937 novel Wide Boys Never Work, a story of the criminal underworld before the Second World War, was the earliest published use of the term "wide boy". In 1956 the book was made into the British film Soho Incident (released in the United States as Spin a Dark Web).
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- Hardcover
Robert Westerby was born on 3 July 1909 in Hackney, London, England, UK. He was a writer, known for The Spider and the Fly (1949), War and Peace (1956) and Don't Ever Leave Me (1949). He was married to Elizabeth. He died on 16 November 1968 in Los Angeles County, California, USA.
- Writer, Soundtrack
- July 3, 1909
- Robert Westerby
- November 16, 1968
Whilst Robert Westerby wrote about the wide boys that never worked he worried and felt for the real boys that couldn’t get work in those depressed decades of the 1920s and 1930s.
Wide Boys Never Work (1937) by Robert Westerby is a classic slice of underworld flavoured London literature. For many years it's unavailability gave it mythic status, something Iain Sinclair lovingly chronicles in his excellent introduction to this 2008 edition.
- Robert Westerby, Iain Sinclair
He commissioned Robert Westerby, who had a reputation for writing contemporary thrillers, to do a script. Michael Balcon was also developing a film based on the same story, and registered an idea with the British Producers Association, but once he heard Box was doing a film as well he withdrew his project.
