Keith Waterhouse has been voted Britain's most admired contemporary columnist by the British Journalism Review.

This is only the latest in a series of awards for him. He received a lifetime's achievement award at the What The Papers Say awards in 2000 and in 1997 he was awarded the Edgar Wallace Trophy by the prestigious London Press Club.

Waterhouse, who begun his career as a reporter on the Yorkshire Evening Post in 1949, is also among Britain's most prolific authors and playwrights. He made his name in the 1950s with his acclaimed novel BILLY LIAR.