Herbert Kretzmer (born October 5, 1925) is a South African-born newspaperman and lyricist, best known for writing the lyrics of the hit musical Les Misérables.

Kretzmer was born in Kroonstad, Orange Free State, South Africa. He moved to Europe after World War II, living in Paris for a time before settling in London in 1954.

He wrote for several Fleet Street newspapers as a feature writer,star interviewer as well as theatre critic ( 18 years on the Daily Express) and television critic ( 8 years on the Daily Mail, during which time he was awarded two national press awards).

During the early 1960s he contributed regular songs to the satirical television series That Was The Week That Was.

He wrote the comic song "Goodness Gracious Me", which was a hit for Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren, and which won him an Ivor Novello Award. He also wrote the lyrics of the chart-topping Charles Aznavour hit song "She" and has collaborated with Aznavour for many years.

In 1985, he was invited by producer Cameron Mackintosh to write the lyrics for the London production French of the musical theate import Les Misérable, by Schonberg and Boublil. It is now the longest running musical in the world, it won 8 Tony awards and the Broadway cast album won a Grammy Award in 1988.

The world premiere of the new musical Marguerite from Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg, the creators of Les Misérables and Miss Saigon, will include music by Michel Legrand and lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer. Marguerite, set during World War II in occupied Paris, and inspired by the romantic novel La Dame aux camélias by Alexandre Dumas, fils, is about the mistress of a high-ranking German officer who attracts the love of a musician half her age. The musical will premiere in May 2008 at the Royal Haymarket Theatre in London.http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/10/theater/10arts-NEWMUSICALFR_BRF.html