Jennings and Darbishire

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Later, the pig is exchanged for a jar of bath salts, which Jennings gives to Matron - only to discover, to his horror, that the jar may also contain a drawing pin. Minor issues present such as mild cracking, inscriptions, inserts, light foxing, tanning and thumb marking. By then the couple had two children and, with a young family to support, he found himself teaching in Suffolk and Northamptonshire, which again provided further experiences for his later work.

I have the same clause in my will, not because I’ve ever been in care but because I couldn’t bear the thought of my children being separated. Anthony Buckeridge was still writing the stories in 1994, although he changed some of the content with the times while keeping the basic concept intact. To say that one was inspired in one’s literary career by the barely-literate Jennings may be an odd claim, but it was because of this book that I started the first of a succession of school newspapers of my own. I also loved the Jennings books and the Molesworth series as a child, but in February, in my work capacity, I’m off to a conference on ‘Boarding School Survivors Syndrome’.Jennings plans to report on a mathematical comparison of TV aerials in rural (Linbury) and urban (Dunhambury) locations - but gets distracted with the care of Old Sleepy, the top secret hedgehog. Both are generally easy-going and supportive of the school's activities, but do occasionally get annoyed when their lives are adversely affected by the boys' antics. Enrolling at Linbury Court boarding school, Jennings (John Mitchell) and his sidekick Darbyshire (Derek Needs) wreaked all manner of harmless havoc, especially whenever they tried to match wits with fearsome headmaster Mr. The adventures of madcap Jennings and his long-suffering friend Darbishire were written almost 80 years ago but still are as fresh and exhilarating a read today. Soon after that, the butter that he's carrying in his blazer pocket (his contribution to the aforementioned 'At Home' event) melts during a maths coaching session with Old Wilkie - much to the latter's fury.

The Jennings books were written for children, but there’s a lot in them – particularly Buckeridge’s delight in language – which is entertaining to an adult. A minor one is that all the series appeared in many editions, but the early ones in particular have some fantastic and atmospheric illustrations. Jennings is full of ideas, and Darbishire follows, but neither of them are inclined too much to think through the consequences of their actions. The later books tend to contain more of a continuing narrative, though Jennings Goes to School still feels well structured, and any loose ends are nicely tied up.At that time, in the 1950s, the BBC’s biggest success was the Billy Bunter television show, written by Frank Richards, about a boys’ boarding school. The only book in the series whose jacket illustration depicts action that doesn't occur in the same story.

Unfortunately it leads to his involvement with the dubious Wally Pink, while Linbury Court school is rocked by the affair of the missing toadstall-eating gerbils and the mysterious refusal of the birds to eat seventy-nine burnt breakfasts.Everything ghastly is ozard; being a new chap’s pretty ozard for a bit, but you’ll get used to it when you’ve been here as long as I have. At least Williams Brown and Bunter had some semblance of a natural naughtiness, Jennings and co were twee beyond compare, the sort of shite to give a poor unsuspecting before sending them away with a tuckbox and a trunk, making them think all was fine and dandy in the dormitories and headmasters studies of our fine establishments. Children in the 1950s who read the Jennings stories were very familiar with the Greyfriars stories, because they had begun in 1908 and literally thousands of stories had been published since then.

Lieutenant General Sir Melville Merridew DSO MC Bart – retired general, the school's most distinguished alumnus, and frequent bestower of half-holidays. It strikes me, now, that in both Buckeridge and Blyton stories all the teachers appear to be unmarried. He is intelligent, impulsive and imaginative, and takes himself and his occupations incredibly seriously.

The site carries no advertising, and I rely on donations to help with running costs and to keep the site running for your entertainment and education. Anthony Buckeridge OBE (1912-2004) was a near contemporary of Enid Blyton and, apart from wartime service as a fireman, was a school master for most of his career. If you’d like to be amused for a few hours, you couldn’t do better than spend it in the company of Jennings and his friends. The earlier novels present an idealised version of rural or small-town, middle-class English life in the years between the Second World War and the social revolution of the 1960s; the later ones are still rooted in this era (as Buckeridge admitted) but reflect the changing times surprisingly well. I am not sure if boys from nowadays will feel the same as certain things are a bit out of date, there is no mobile or DS in sight, but it is sure funny!