Willy Russell Willy Russell William Russell (born 23 August 1947) is an English dramatist, lyricist and composer. His best known works are "Educating Rita", "Shirley Valentine", "Blood Brothers" and "Our Day Out". Russell was born in Whiston in Lancashire. On leaving school, aged 15, he became a ladies' hairdresser eventually running his own salon until the age of 20 when he decided to try to go back to college, eventually qualifying as a teacher. During these years Russell also worked as a semi-professional singer, writing and performing his own songs on the then flourishing and vibrant folk scene. At college, he began
Valentine Leeper woman", and as being at "the forefront of insightful biography". Valentine Leeper Valentine Alexa Leeper (14 February 1900 – 26 July 2001) was an Australian classicist, teacher, polemicist, and letter-writer of renown. Valentine Leeper was born on Valentine's Day 1900 in the Leeper Building of Trinity College at the University of Melbourne, daughter of Dr Alexander Leeper, first Warden of that college, and his second wife, Mary (née Moule). Her half-brothers, Reginald Leeper and Allen Leeper, both became prominent British diplomats. Her brother, Geoffrey Leeper, became the first professor of agricultural chemistry at the University of Melbourne. Valentine was educated