Frank Norman

Who was Frank Norman?

Frank Norman was a British novelist and playwright.

His reputation rests on his first memoir Bang to Rights and his musical play Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be, but much of the remainder of his work remains fresh and readable. Norman's early success was based in part on the frankness of his memoirs and in part on the style of his writing, which contained both renditions of cockney speakers and his own poor spelling. Jeffrey Bernard in an obituary of Norman wrote that he was

a 'natural' writer of considerable wit, powers of sardonic observation and with a razor sharp ear for dialogue particularly as spoken in the underworld.