Career
Born in Liverpool, Walmsley came to Canada with his family in 1952, and was raised in Oshawa, Ontario and Lorraine, Quebec. He dropped out of high school and battled addictions as a young adult. He later published a sequel, Shades, and another unrelated novel, Kid Stuff.
Walmsley wrote the screenplay for Jerry Ciccoritti"s film Paris, France in 1993.
Ciccoritti also later adapted Walmsley"s play Blood into a film. Walmsley"s style of writing ranges from the naturalistic to the poetic and, at times, the absurd.
He moves easily between dramatic and comedic, and some of his "darkest" work is treated with a cutting sense of humour. His most common themes include sex (both heteroand homosexual, often involving sado-masochistic fetishes, adulterous affairs, and, in the case of Blood, incest), violence, addiction (to alcohol and heroin in particular), and God (from a Christian perspective).
Early in his career, Walmsley summarized his sense of personal identity as "blond, stocky, below average height, uncircumcised, bisexual, tattooed, with bad teeth and very large feet".
Mr. Paris, France, 1993 Blood, 2005 (adaptation by Jerry Ciccoritti) Libretto Julie Sits Waiting 2012.
