10 Strangest Fictitious Countries

Ask an American about Keith Waterhouse's 1959 novel and the subsequent play and film Billy Liar, they'll tell you it's "The English Walter Mitty", likely believing the comparison to be favourable. But James Thurber's trifling short story of a man fantasizing various scenarios as he goes about his day has, at most, a surface connection to Waterhouse's much superior work.

The novel was adapted in the aforementioned mediums, but it also saw a TV series, musical, sequel novel and references in too many pop songs to count. It focuses less on its titular character's fantasy life - something it's understood he'll never even try for due to the class limitations thrust upon him - and more with the doldrum existence he's stuck living.

During the days, Billy toils away as a clerk for two undertakers while he dreams of Ambrosia, the fictional dictatorship he rules. But it's the kind of dictatorship that real fascist leaders like to paint their hellscapes as to visiting ambassadors and heads of state. We don't get much detail on Ambrosia's policies or laws - it's likely Billy himself didn't think such things through. Given his kind albeit absent and often unreliable heart, Ambrosia works best as the way station to reality that it is. Don't try to apply any real-world strife of conflict to it - it simply won't hold up.

But it's a sight better than what Billy has waiting at home.