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Jennings #5
Jennings' Diary
It is the Easter term at Linbury Court School and Jennings has been promised five pounds by his aunt if he keeps up his diary every day. When he and Darbishire devise a code for entries, things really start to happen - the nasty incident of Wilkins's mark book is only one of them.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1953
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70 people want to read
About the author
Anthony Buckeridge
110 books45 followersAnthony Malcolm Buckeridge was born in London but following the death of his banker father in the First World War he moved with his mother to Ross-on-Wye to live with his grandparents.
At the end of the war they returned to London where he developed a taste for theatre and writing. A scholarship from the Bank Clerks' Orphanage fund permitted his mother to send him to Seaford College boarding school in Sussex. His experiences as a schoolboy there were instrumental in his later work, particularly in his famous Jennings series of novels.
Following the death of his grandfather, the family moved to Welwyn Garden City where his mother worked in promoting the new suburban utopia to Londoners. In 1930 Buckeridge began work at his late father's bank but soon tired of it. Instead he took to acting including an uncredited part in Anthony Asquith's 1931 film 'Tell England'.
After marrying his first wife, Sylvia Brown, he enrolled at University College London where he involved himself in Socialist and anti-war groups and he was later to become an active member of CND. Unfortunately at university he did not take a degree after failing Latin.
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. During the Second World War, he was called up as a fireman and wrote several plays for the stage before returning to teaching in Ramsgate.
He used to tell his pupils stories about the fictional character Jennings, who was based on an old school chum of his, Diarmid Jennings. Diarmid was a prep schoolboy boarding at Linbury Court Preparatory School, where the headmaster was Mr Pemberton-Oakes.
After World War II, he wrote a series of radio plays for the BBC's Children's Hour chronicling the exploits of Jennings and his rather more staid friend, Darbishire. 'Jennings Learns the Ropes', the first of his radio plays, was broadcast on 16 October 1948. And then in 1950, the first of 26 Jennings novels, 'Jennings Goes to School' was published.
'Jennings Follows a Clue' appeared in 1951 and then Jennings novels were published regularly through to 1977 before he reappeared in the 1990s with three books that ended with 'That's Jennings' in 1994. The books were as well known and as popular as Frank Richards' Billy Bunter books in their day and were translated into a number of other languages.
The stories of middle class English schoolboys were especially popular in Norway where several were filmed. The Norwegian books and films were rewritten completely for a Norwegian setting with Norwegian names and Jennings is called "Stompa". And in France Jennings was, rather oddly, known as Bennett!
He also wrote five novels featuring a north London Grammar School boy, Rex Milligan, one other novel, 'A Funny Thing Happened: The First [and only] Adventure of the Blighs' (1953), wrote a collection of short stories, 'Stories for Boys' (1957), his autobiography, 'While I Remember' (1999) and edited an anthology, 'In and Out of School' (1958).
In 1962 he met his second wife, Eileen Selby. They settled near Lewes where he continued to write and from where he also appeared in small (non-singing) roles at Glyndebourne.
He was awarded the OBE in 2003.
He died on 28 June 2004 after a spell of ill health with his second wife Eileen and three children, two from his first marriage, surviving him.
Gerry Wolstenholme
September 2010
At the end of the war they returned to London where he developed a taste for theatre and writing. A scholarship from the Bank Clerks' Orphanage fund permitted his mother to send him to Seaford College boarding school in Sussex. His experiences as a schoolboy there were instrumental in his later work, particularly in his famous Jennings series of novels.
Following the death of his grandfather, the family moved to Welwyn Garden City where his mother worked in promoting the new suburban utopia to Londoners. In 1930 Buckeridge began work at his late father's bank but soon tired of it. Instead he took to acting including an uncredited part in Anthony Asquith's 1931 film 'Tell England'.
After marrying his first wife, Sylvia Brown, he enrolled at University College London where he involved himself in Socialist and anti-war groups and he was later to become an active member of CND. Unfortunately at university he did not take a degree after failing Latin.
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. During the Second World War, he was called up as a fireman and wrote several plays for the stage before returning to teaching in Ramsgate.
He used to tell his pupils stories about the fictional character Jennings, who was based on an old school chum of his, Diarmid Jennings. Diarmid was a prep schoolboy boarding at Linbury Court Preparatory School, where the headmaster was Mr Pemberton-Oakes.
After World War II, he wrote a series of radio plays for the BBC's Children's Hour chronicling the exploits of Jennings and his rather more staid friend, Darbishire. 'Jennings Learns the Ropes', the first of his radio plays, was broadcast on 16 October 1948. And then in 1950, the first of 26 Jennings novels, 'Jennings Goes to School' was published.
'Jennings Follows a Clue' appeared in 1951 and then Jennings novels were published regularly through to 1977 before he reappeared in the 1990s with three books that ended with 'That's Jennings' in 1994. The books were as well known and as popular as Frank Richards' Billy Bunter books in their day and were translated into a number of other languages.
The stories of middle class English schoolboys were especially popular in Norway where several were filmed. The Norwegian books and films were rewritten completely for a Norwegian setting with Norwegian names and Jennings is called "Stompa". And in France Jennings was, rather oddly, known as Bennett!
He also wrote five novels featuring a north London Grammar School boy, Rex Milligan, one other novel, 'A Funny Thing Happened: The First [and only] Adventure of the Blighs' (1953), wrote a collection of short stories, 'Stories for Boys' (1957), his autobiography, 'While I Remember' (1999) and edited an anthology, 'In and Out of School' (1958).
In 1962 he met his second wife, Eileen Selby. They settled near Lewes where he continued to write and from where he also appeared in small (non-singing) roles at Glyndebourne.
He was awarded the OBE in 2003.
He died on 28 June 2004 after a spell of ill health with his second wife Eileen and three children, two from his first marriage, surviving him.
Gerry Wolstenholme
September 2010
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
September 1, 2020
Turned me into a diary keeper and still keeping it up 40 years later. My style is not any better than Jennings' "Went to Nat. Hist. Mus. soon after Christmas" efforts.
October 1, 2017
Our favorite characters are back, Jennings and Darbishire, of course, also Mr. Carter, Mr. Wilkins and the Headmaster. Aunt Angela is the cause of some commotion with her gift to Jennings of a red diary but one lacking that essential lock and key.
This is a pretty good read but it's not getting 5 stars mostly because it follows Jennings and Darbishire and comes up short in comparison. It's not one big thing, it's several small things that simply make this book a little less funny.
For example, it is a running joke that Darbishire constantly quotes his father's maxims. I think it is most effective when he barely gets out "My father says..." before he is interrupted. It isn't necessary or desirable for him to be allowed to turn the story into a book of quotations. In this book he manages to get out too much of too many. Darbishire's father might have told Buckeridge "Less is more."
This too much-ness shows up again when Mr. Wilkins and Jennings have a moment of harmony and the very next sentence tells us that it won't last long. It isn't necessary to state that (Show don't tell) when a few paragraphs later, all is explained.
Page 109: The boys are talking about enjoying an old camp fire sing-song and, to my surprise, give as an example "John Brown's Body." Only a day or two before, I watched a rerun of "Midsomer Murder" and heard the song "Blue Tail Fly." Were these American songs really that popular in England?
This is a pretty good read but it's not getting 5 stars mostly because it follows Jennings and Darbishire and comes up short in comparison. It's not one big thing, it's several small things that simply make this book a little less funny.
For example, it is a running joke that Darbishire constantly quotes his father's maxims. I think it is most effective when he barely gets out "My father says..." before he is interrupted. It isn't necessary or desirable for him to be allowed to turn the story into a book of quotations. In this book he manages to get out too much of too many. Darbishire's father might have told Buckeridge "Less is more."
This too much-ness shows up again when Mr. Wilkins and Jennings have a moment of harmony and the very next sentence tells us that it won't last long. It isn't necessary to state that (Show don't tell) when a few paragraphs later, all is explained.
Page 109: The boys are talking about enjoying an old camp fire sing-song and, to my surprise, give as an example "John Brown's Body." Only a day or two before, I watched a rerun of "Midsomer Murder" and heard the song "Blue Tail Fly." Were these American songs really that popular in England?
January 18, 2015
I read some of the Jennings books as a child and I thought I’d give this a go as an adult because I don’t remember reading this particular one and I like books which are diaries. This is a jolly book. You can’t help liking Jennings, who is full of schoolboy enthusiasms. You also can’t help sometimes feeling sympathetic towards the teachers who have to try and rein in some of his sillier notions. The book isn’t written in a diary format but is a well-structured story. It’s one of those great British books where not much actually happens and there is a lot of polite dialogue and amusing misunderstandings. It’s good Sunday comfort reading.
November 6, 2014
This is a very strong entry in the series with an amusing sequence of events centring around Jennings' Christmas present from his Aunt Angela - a diary that is destined to cause more trouble than a diary ever should!
Highlight: Mr Wilkins finds himself responsible for removing Jennings and Darbishire's "genuine fake" Roman chariot wheel from Dunhambury Museum.
Highlight: Mr Wilkins finds himself responsible for removing Jennings and Darbishire's "genuine fake" Roman chariot wheel from Dunhambury Museum.
November 6, 2021
When I was ill in childhood, my Mum used to read Jennings stories to me, and we laughed a lot. This was a comfort audio book while I was ill this week...
January 28, 2025
Another good term’s happenings in the life of Linbury Court Preparatory School, this time through the leitmotiv of Jennings’ new diary which he must write an entry for every day during an entire year if he is to earn the 10/- that his Aunt Angela has promised him if he completes his task.
The dramatis personae remain essentially the same as other Jennings stories: Mr Carter, Mr Wilkins, Matron, the distant Mr Pemberton-Oakes, and Darbishire, Temple, Venables, Atkinson et al. The cameos are provided by the curator of Dunhambury Museum, the Linbury policeman, Mr Lumley (a laconic shopkeeper who hires out ramshackle bicycles on the side), and a rag and bone man. The cast is really quite a remarkably small one, but Buckeridge knows how to make a mountain out of a molehill without losing our interest. After all, as a schoolteacher of small boys he knows how well they can do exactly the same, but he also has, I thought while reading this novel, a good sense of how farce works.
Farce, I propose, often relies on a small cast being manipulated by the playwright so that they repeatedly frustrate each other’s intentions, either advertently or inadvertently. In Buckeridge’s world, those frustrations are usually caused by Jennings, who, let it be said, is neither bad nor even naughty, just adventurous – or, to an adult, ‘a silly little boy’. But if Jennings gets an idea in his head, he follows it, but if his idea runs counter to the smooth running of a preparatory boarding school it causes disruptions and misunderstandings.
Those disruptions are usually most keenly felt by Mr Wilkins who is fundamentally a hearty, decent chap but liable to explosive bursts of frustrated temper. (I can imagine him thinking ‘Why can’t small boys be more like adults’?) These comedic moments are tempered by the tolerant good sense of Matron and the balanced Mr Carter who is both fair and firm – and both irritated and amused by Mr Wilkins’ tantrums. Around the adult forces of order circle the genially pestiferous pupils who operate their own systems of logic and rationality, and that conflict produces the misunderstandings that in Buckeridge’s world lead to hilarity.
I found the sequences related to the discovery of an old cast iron cartwheel, Jennings’ music, buying a present for Matron, and Mr Wilkins’ cufflink especially enjoyable. And of course, there is the diary - written in a straightforward code - which Jennings loses and which he fears, if found, might implicate him as being part of an Eastern European spy ring.
A very enjoyable children’s book. My wife said that when she was a girl, she loved the Jennings stories, and ‘Jennings’ Diary’ was her favourite.
The dramatis personae remain essentially the same as other Jennings stories: Mr Carter, Mr Wilkins, Matron, the distant Mr Pemberton-Oakes, and Darbishire, Temple, Venables, Atkinson et al. The cameos are provided by the curator of Dunhambury Museum, the Linbury policeman, Mr Lumley (a laconic shopkeeper who hires out ramshackle bicycles on the side), and a rag and bone man. The cast is really quite a remarkably small one, but Buckeridge knows how to make a mountain out of a molehill without losing our interest. After all, as a schoolteacher of small boys he knows how well they can do exactly the same, but he also has, I thought while reading this novel, a good sense of how farce works.
Farce, I propose, often relies on a small cast being manipulated by the playwright so that they repeatedly frustrate each other’s intentions, either advertently or inadvertently. In Buckeridge’s world, those frustrations are usually caused by Jennings, who, let it be said, is neither bad nor even naughty, just adventurous – or, to an adult, ‘a silly little boy’. But if Jennings gets an idea in his head, he follows it, but if his idea runs counter to the smooth running of a preparatory boarding school it causes disruptions and misunderstandings.
Those disruptions are usually most keenly felt by Mr Wilkins who is fundamentally a hearty, decent chap but liable to explosive bursts of frustrated temper. (I can imagine him thinking ‘Why can’t small boys be more like adults’?) These comedic moments are tempered by the tolerant good sense of Matron and the balanced Mr Carter who is both fair and firm – and both irritated and amused by Mr Wilkins’ tantrums. Around the adult forces of order circle the genially pestiferous pupils who operate their own systems of logic and rationality, and that conflict produces the misunderstandings that in Buckeridge’s world lead to hilarity.
I found the sequences related to the discovery of an old cast iron cartwheel, Jennings’ music, buying a present for Matron, and Mr Wilkins’ cufflink especially enjoyable. And of course, there is the diary - written in a straightforward code - which Jennings loses and which he fears, if found, might implicate him as being part of an Eastern European spy ring.
A very enjoyable children’s book. My wife said that when she was a girl, she loved the Jennings stories, and ‘Jennings’ Diary’ was her favourite.
December 26, 2024
Boarding school novel, fifth in the Jennings series. Funny and full of innocent boyish mischief. This time Jennings has a diary, and the aunt who gave it to him will give him some pocket money if he writes in it everyday for a year. The usual Jennings shenanigans ensue, to the dispair of Mr. Wilkins, who out of the two teachers is the least used to boys.
July 1, 2024
It's not Jennings if he doesn't make any trouble at school at all. Everything about him is exasperating, yet funny. Poor Mr. Wilkins always being the victim.
December 3, 2024
I have always enjoyed this book, but I enjoyed it more when I was younger. Buckeridge wastes words by spelling things out even more than usual, and there are some very clunky plot contrivances. There are also plenty of enjoyable moments, however, most of which involve Mr Wilkins.
Highlight: Darbishire annoys Mr Wilkins with his interest in the closing of Jennings' trunk.
Lowlight: Darbishire, against all sense (even that of Jennings!), has charge of a breakable item purely to facilitate the plot.
Highlight: Darbishire annoys Mr Wilkins with his interest in the closing of Jennings' trunk.
Lowlight: Darbishire, against all sense (even that of Jennings!), has charge of a breakable item purely to facilitate the plot.
April 22, 2020
I recently re-bought this book as I had it as a child and loved it. The stories are dated now, being set in a 1950s prep school, but they remain hilarious. This series should really be much better known.
In this book, Jennings keeps a diary, whilst all kinds of hilarious things happen around him. The author shows his understanding of boys in showing how none of the diary entries really bring out the drama of the school term! Indeed many entries are impenetrable without some knowledge of the events described.
Thoroughly recommended.
In this book, Jennings keeps a diary, whilst all kinds of hilarious things happen around him. The author shows his understanding of boys in showing how none of the diary entries really bring out the drama of the school term! Indeed many entries are impenetrable without some knowledge of the events described.
Thoroughly recommended.
January 23, 2012
Brilliant. Sublime. From a much underrated author.
January 18, 2016
Contrived, elitist, predictable and quite wonderful.
February 15, 2016
if you want to laugh all day then read jennings diary
March 31, 2016
One of the best, immensely funny from cover to cover
Read
February 25, 2019No good.
June 23, 2021
I love the Jennings books, and this is a worthy part of the series.
September 13, 2021
More laugh out loud moments as Jennings and his diary gets him into the inevitable misunderstandings. The trip out to buy a present for matron on the hired bikes is a classic moment.
Read
August 8, 2022My copy tragically involved in a camping flood accident, appropriately, given the adventures of aforementioned diary.
October 4, 2025
Was tempted to put 5 stars!
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews