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The Compleet Molesworth
The Compleet Molesworth
402 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1958
53 people are currently reading
1455 people want to read
About the author
Geoffrey Willans
39 books28 followersHerbert Geoffrey Willans was an English author and journalist, is best known as the co-creator, with the illustrator Ronald Searle, of Nigel Molesworth, the "goriller of 3b and curse of St. Custard's".
He was educated at Blundells School, Tiverton, and became a schoolmaster there. Molesworth first appeared in Punch in the 1940s and was the protagonist and narrator of five books, beginning with 1953's Down with Skool!, and followed by How to be Topp, Wizz for Atomms and, posthumously, Back in the Jug Agane and the anthology, The Compleet Molesworth. Comic misspellings, erratic capitalisation and 1950s public schoolboy slang are threads running through all the books.
According to Ronald Searle in his obituary:
"His cunning was more refined than Bunter...Willans was delighted that schoolmasters, far from feeling publicly disrobed, were in fact giving away his books as end of school prizes."
Willans co-wrote the screenplay for the 1959 film The Bridal Path, which starred George Cole, but died at the age of 47 before the film was released. He also wrote a number of other, mostly humorous, books, including The Dog's Ear Book (also with Searle), My Uncle Harry (an exploration of the British gentlemen's club), Fasten Your Lapstraps! (an account of the early days of intercontinental flight), and Admiral on Horseback (a rather serious one about the navy). He was a keen amateur botanist, and spent so long in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew that the staff gave him a key.
A review in The Times newspaper describes The Whistling Arrow as having a futuristic aeroplane as the 'heroine'. "It is his apparent strength in writing about planes and the people that flew them." The reviewer compares it with one of Evelyn Waugh's earlier novels.
He was educated at Blundells School, Tiverton, and became a schoolmaster there. Molesworth first appeared in Punch in the 1940s and was the protagonist and narrator of five books, beginning with 1953's Down with Skool!, and followed by How to be Topp, Wizz for Atomms and, posthumously, Back in the Jug Agane and the anthology, The Compleet Molesworth. Comic misspellings, erratic capitalisation and 1950s public schoolboy slang are threads running through all the books.
According to Ronald Searle in his obituary:
"His cunning was more refined than Bunter...Willans was delighted that schoolmasters, far from feeling publicly disrobed, were in fact giving away his books as end of school prizes."
Willans co-wrote the screenplay for the 1959 film The Bridal Path, which starred George Cole, but died at the age of 47 before the film was released. He also wrote a number of other, mostly humorous, books, including The Dog's Ear Book (also with Searle), My Uncle Harry (an exploration of the British gentlemen's club), Fasten Your Lapstraps! (an account of the early days of intercontinental flight), and Admiral on Horseback (a rather serious one about the navy). He was a keen amateur botanist, and spent so long in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew that the staff gave him a key.
A review in The Times newspaper describes The Whistling Arrow as having a futuristic aeroplane as the 'heroine'. "It is his apparent strength in writing about planes and the people that flew them." The reviewer compares it with one of Evelyn Waugh's earlier novels.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 91 reviews
July 4, 2016
I adored Down With Skool!, the first of four books featuring observations from that consummate blockhead, Nigel Molesworth, the self-described “curse of St. Custard’s,” an English boarding school in the 1950s. When I had the chance to buy Molesworth, an omnibus of all four books for a pittance, I jumped at the chance. “As any fule kno,”* what could be more fun?
Molesworth 1 (so called by his schoolmasters and peers to distinguish him from his younger and stupider brother, Molesworth 2) remains as ignorant, lazy, and pig-headed as ever in How to Be Topp, Whizz for Atomms, and Back in the Jug Agane, Down With Skool!’s three sequels. Molesworth’s spelling, punctuation, and syntax remain just as atrocious, too. Chiz, chiz!** What also remains the same 60 years later, thankfully, are author Geoffrey Willans’ hilarious satire and illustrator Ronald Searle’s masterful caricatures from the original books.
Molesworth rants about the lack of importance of Latin, French, maths, and even English in the nuclear age; the perfidy and cruelty of schoolmasters; the disappointment in discovering that Americans aren’t all gangsters and cowboys; and the impertinence of “new bugs” (a.k.a. first-year pupils), who Molesworth feels should tremble in the face of the upperclassmen. He spends much of his time daydreaming about life as a Roman, an Elizabethan, and an evolved egg-shaped being from centuries in the future. He good-naturedly razzes his “grate friend” (and fellow philistine) Timothy Peason and less good-naturedly denigrates that paragon, Basil Fotherington-Tomas*** [sic].
While the sequels aren’t as hilarious as Down with Skool!, they’re still pretty good, particularly Whizz for Atomms, which is nearly its equal. That book is the most hilarious when Molesworth waxes eloquent about life outside of St. Custard’s: The bits about Christmas, the summer holidays, the dread of “[a]nother weedy party and a lot of weedy little gurls,” and the schizophrenic nature of grandmothers will make readers laugh out loud. Nigel Molesworth, despite being an uncultured, dim-witted slacker, really captured my heart. Here’s to remembering that we, like Molesworth and his “felow oiks, cads, bulies, and dirty roters,” overcame the superficiality and stupidity of youth, and to cut some slack to the next generation.
* As any fool knows
** Variously, What an outrage! or What a swindle!
** I cannot tell if Molesworth is misspelling Fotherington-Thomas, or if it’s actually Fotherington-Tomas, and Basil has a Portuguese or Spanish ancestor.
Molesworth 1 (so called by his schoolmasters and peers to distinguish him from his younger and stupider brother, Molesworth 2) remains as ignorant, lazy, and pig-headed as ever in How to Be Topp, Whizz for Atomms, and Back in the Jug Agane, Down With Skool!’s three sequels. Molesworth’s spelling, punctuation, and syntax remain just as atrocious, too. Chiz, chiz!** What also remains the same 60 years later, thankfully, are author Geoffrey Willans’ hilarious satire and illustrator Ronald Searle’s masterful caricatures from the original books.
Molesworth rants about the lack of importance of Latin, French, maths, and even English in the nuclear age; the perfidy and cruelty of schoolmasters; the disappointment in discovering that Americans aren’t all gangsters and cowboys; and the impertinence of “new bugs” (a.k.a. first-year pupils), who Molesworth feels should tremble in the face of the upperclassmen. He spends much of his time daydreaming about life as a Roman, an Elizabethan, and an evolved egg-shaped being from centuries in the future. He good-naturedly razzes his “grate friend” (and fellow philistine) Timothy Peason and less good-naturedly denigrates that paragon, Basil Fotherington-Tomas*** [sic].
While the sequels aren’t as hilarious as Down with Skool!, they’re still pretty good, particularly Whizz for Atomms, which is nearly its equal. That book is the most hilarious when Molesworth waxes eloquent about life outside of St. Custard’s: The bits about Christmas, the summer holidays, the dread of “[a]nother weedy party and a lot of weedy little gurls,” and the schizophrenic nature of grandmothers will make readers laugh out loud. Nigel Molesworth, despite being an uncultured, dim-witted slacker, really captured my heart. Here’s to remembering that we, like Molesworth and his “felow oiks, cads, bulies, and dirty roters,” overcame the superficiality and stupidity of youth, and to cut some slack to the next generation.
* As any fool knows
** Variously, What an outrage! or What a swindle!
** I cannot tell if Molesworth is misspelling Fotherington-Thomas, or if it’s actually Fotherington-Tomas, and Basil has a Portuguese or Spanish ancestor.
February 16, 2011
You do not review Molesworth, you can only pay homage to one of the funniest creations in English literature. Almost 60 years since Nigel Molesworth, the curse of St. Custards, turned a withering eye on the English public school system, the British class system, and life in general, his four masterpieces, "Down With Skool", "How to be Topp", "Whizz for Atoms", and "Back in the Jug Agane" are still as fresh as the day they were written. The collaboration of Geoffrey Willans who crafted the inimitable prose (and even more inimitable spelling) and Ronald Searle who drew the matchless illustrations, produced a little world of surreal perfection which is still mercifully open to those who can leave their grown-upness outside the creaking gates of St. Custard's.
(Chiz, I think while riting this revew I have been chaneling fotherington-tomas you kno he sa Hullo clouds hullo sky he is a girlie and love the scents and sounds of nature, as any fule kno.)
(Chiz, I think while riting this revew I have been chaneling fotherington-tomas you kno he sa Hullo clouds hullo sky he is a girlie and love the scents and sounds of nature, as any fule kno.)
December 11, 2012
Have you ever sensed a kindred spirit upon hearing the words "as any fule kno"?
Has your trained ear been able to detect the difference between "No!" and "Noe!"?*
Have you ever seen a gerund cut a gerundive?
Or puzzled out the meaning of "Caesar adsum jam forte"?
Or cried, "THE PRUNES ARE REVOLTING!"?
If not, you need to read these books.
* "Crie you mercie, Mowlesworth!" "Noe!"
Has your trained ear been able to detect the difference between "No!" and "Noe!"?*
Have you ever seen a gerund cut a gerundive?
Or puzzled out the meaning of "Caesar adsum jam forte"?
Or cried, "THE PRUNES ARE REVOLTING!"?
If not, you need to read these books.
* "Crie you mercie, Mowlesworth!" "Noe!"
May 1, 2013
According to the listing in "Goodreads", this book is by Geoffrey Willans. In fact, it's a dual effort, Ronald Searle being the other contributor, and the latter's zany, way-out illustrations contribute as much as the text to this work being one of the all-time classics of school comedy.
The Molesworth stories deal with the (obviously) fictitious St Custard's school (or "skool", for Nigel's spelling is not especially accurate), essentially a highly satarised version of what a typical English boarding school was like in the 1950s. It appears that the authors took as their model the many school series around at that time, such as Billy Bunter, Jennings, 5th Form at St Dominic's and such, and then proceeded to stand them on their head, taking the concepts to a wild and hilarious conclusion!
Ostensibly a series of essays, written by the titular character, on various aspect of what it's like to be a "young Elizabethan" (Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the second, in case you were wondering) the books are actually a romp that will leave anyone with a sense of the absurd helpless with laughter.
The canon abounds with amazing characters, such as Grabber, the Head Boy, who has won every prize going (including the "Miss Joyful Prize For Raffia Work"), Fotherington-Thomas, the utterly wet "skool swot" who goes around talking to the clouds and flowers, Nigel's brother "Molesworth II", "mi grate freind Peason", and various sadistic masters, "new bugs", bemused civilians and not to mention Prudence Entwhistle, the glamorous under-matron!
But best of all is Nigel himself, a gentle, detached scribe, content merely to pass melancholy and philosophical observations on the absurdities of "skool" life - complete with ink blots from his crossed pen-nib!
This is that rare thing, a true treasure of comedy. And since this book brings together all the works in one anthology, who could resist it? Particularly rib-tickling are Nigel's account of playing in the school football match, told in the manner of an existentialist philosopher, the account of a visit to the museum (where the pupils hijack a "trane" and spend the whole afternoon singing the "Davy Crockett" theme), Nigel's love affair with the Under-Matron, and the tale of the visiting French exchange student, Armand. But really, you can dip anywhere into this volume and find something utterly brilliant.
Given that they made a series of movies about Searle's girls' school, St Trinians, (recently remade), surely a Molesworth movie is way overdue. I for one would queue all night for tickets!
The Molesworth stories deal with the (obviously) fictitious St Custard's school (or "skool", for Nigel's spelling is not especially accurate), essentially a highly satarised version of what a typical English boarding school was like in the 1950s. It appears that the authors took as their model the many school series around at that time, such as Billy Bunter, Jennings, 5th Form at St Dominic's and such, and then proceeded to stand them on their head, taking the concepts to a wild and hilarious conclusion!
Ostensibly a series of essays, written by the titular character, on various aspect of what it's like to be a "young Elizabethan" (Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the second, in case you were wondering) the books are actually a romp that will leave anyone with a sense of the absurd helpless with laughter.
The canon abounds with amazing characters, such as Grabber, the Head Boy, who has won every prize going (including the "Miss Joyful Prize For Raffia Work"), Fotherington-Thomas, the utterly wet "skool swot" who goes around talking to the clouds and flowers, Nigel's brother "Molesworth II", "mi grate freind Peason", and various sadistic masters, "new bugs", bemused civilians and not to mention Prudence Entwhistle, the glamorous under-matron!
But best of all is Nigel himself, a gentle, detached scribe, content merely to pass melancholy and philosophical observations on the absurdities of "skool" life - complete with ink blots from his crossed pen-nib!
This is that rare thing, a true treasure of comedy. And since this book brings together all the works in one anthology, who could resist it? Particularly rib-tickling are Nigel's account of playing in the school football match, told in the manner of an existentialist philosopher, the account of a visit to the museum (where the pupils hijack a "trane" and spend the whole afternoon singing the "Davy Crockett" theme), Nigel's love affair with the Under-Matron, and the tale of the visiting French exchange student, Armand. But really, you can dip anywhere into this volume and find something utterly brilliant.
Given that they made a series of movies about Searle's girls' school, St Trinians, (recently remade), surely a Molesworth movie is way overdue. I for one would queue all night for tickets!
October 20, 2008
This was a wonderful trip down memory lane for me. Molesworth, like me, first appeared in the 1950s, and we had all the books in the house when I was a child. I agree with Philip Hensher ( a good 10 years younger than me) who wrote the introduction to this anthology: "I thought they were children's books, when I was a child, and now that I am an adult, think they are books for adults about childhood."
True, it's ostensibly a kind of childhood that at first glance seems very much removed from anything that we know today (post-war, private boarding school, corporal punishment the norm) but that doesn't in any way detract from the books' charms. They are quite simply hilariously funny - and sarcastic and cynical too. Post-war Britain as seen through the jaundiced eye of a child. And so full of quotes! This was the first time I had read Molesworth since at least 35 years ago, and I was tickled to discover how many little things that I say regularly originated in these pages.
True, it's ostensibly a kind of childhood that at first glance seems very much removed from anything that we know today (post-war, private boarding school, corporal punishment the norm) but that doesn't in any way detract from the books' charms. They are quite simply hilariously funny - and sarcastic and cynical too. Post-war Britain as seen through the jaundiced eye of a child. And so full of quotes! This was the first time I had read Molesworth since at least 35 years ago, and I was tickled to discover how many little things that I say regularly originated in these pages.
October 30, 2015
Advanced. Forthright. Signifficant.
June 14, 2015
I first read "How to be Topp" when I was very young. It was on my father's bookshelf, pushed haphazardly in among the more erudite and literary offerings of George Orwell and the poetry of Byron. My father, an English teacher, loved that book. I loved it too, and revisited it many times.
Until I chanced upon this compilation of the three "Molesworth" books jammed into one volume, I had no idea that they were so popular. I thought dad's book was a quirky obscure little volume.
I've been reading "Molesworth" over the past few weeks, picking it up and putting it down, laughing at the lines, appreciative of its comedic genius. Simply a great series of books.
I'm not marking this as a kid's book -- I think it is best appreciated by adults.
Until I chanced upon this compilation of the three "Molesworth" books jammed into one volume, I had no idea that they were so popular. I thought dad's book was a quirky obscure little volume.
I've been reading "Molesworth" over the past few weeks, picking it up and putting it down, laughing at the lines, appreciative of its comedic genius. Simply a great series of books.
I'm not marking this as a kid's book -- I think it is best appreciated by adults.
November 14, 2011
I first read this book when I was at a school that could have been the model for St Custards and I got into trouble for being unable to control my hysterical laughter. I cannot listen to the march past of the Rifle Brigade without laughing. The writing is beautiful, as are the illustrations. This is a must read for anybody who enjoys a belly laugh and the repeated cocking of snooks at the English and their societies
September 9, 2008
One of the funniest books I have ever read. And re-read. And re-re-read times without number. A gauranteed pick-me-up, no matter how down you are. "Do ye ken John Plunk in his tinkle-tinkle-zing" will be with me forever.
September 15, 2014
As good as ever. A book to skim, laugh at, then put away for another few years/ Not a gud way to lurn to spel.
December 27, 2018
The Compleet Molesworth by Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle (co-creator and illustrator) had been on my TRL for ages. I was intrigued by the illustrations that were depicted on the cover and its comparison to my dear Roald Dahl. This is a classic children's series (bound together in its entirety here) about a boy named Nigel Molesworth who narrates his time in a boy's boarding school called St. Custard's. Willans captures the spirit of boyhood in a private boarding school especially well owing to his being a Headmaster himself. (This is even funnier once you get to know Headmaster Grimes who is particularly fond of the cane.) This book is replete with bad spelling (evidenced in the title) and absolutely stunning illustrations by Searle who was a satirical cartoonist (perfect for this series). Molesworth and his buddies get up to many hi-jinks and shenanigans which are generally instigated by our hero. Amidst all of this tomfoolery Willans and Searle have taken jabs at the inequalities of the classes by showcasing the Head Boy Grabber as only being placed in such a prestigious position because his parents shell out lots of money. (The Headmaster is greedy and generally does all he can to cut corners most notably with the selection of food offered to the students.) If you can get used to the bad spelling, grammatical errors, made-up slang, and seemingly arbitrary abbreviations for everything you will see why this has held up as a true children's classic. It's witty, cutting in its bluntness, and in general everything I hoped it would be. 10/10
August 3, 2025
Incredibly funny.
November 11, 2017
I discovered this book as an adult, and though I went to school in America, Molesworth's views on school, camaraderie, and people he doesn't want to admit are his friends (but are) feel timeless. Molesworth was the first grate* misspeller, before the Internet and Leetspeak. One downside, though, is after reading Molesworth's misspellings, most anyone else on the Internet seems like an amateur even 60+ years later.
Molesworth, the "goriller of 3b," complains about anything and everything, but not seriously. His younger brother, that weedy wet Basil Fotherington-Tomas, gurls, St. Custard's rivalry with Porridge Court, the grouchy skool dog, and even occasionally his grate freind Peason. (A year after reading, I was shocked to see Peason was really Pearson. I should have known it was a misspelling.) But he doesn't have any real conflicts beyond maybe failing if he does too badly. He's just thoroughly ridiculous, except if you're the sort of person who ever spaced out in class, you might be a little jealous he did it so much better. And he'd be quite good if he sat down to focus, because he'd realize the weedy wets you have to read in English class discuss the same themes he brings up, just with better grammar. But he has his own vision of life.
Ronald Searle's ghastly and hilarious illustrations, and while the book would stand on its own, they add to Molesworth's imaginative and laughable dreams and views on the world.
I originally checked The Compleat Molesworth out on interlibrary loan, and I read it twice before returning it and promptly buying a second-hand edition, despite (as Nigel might say) being a weedy wet who hav no space on a bookshelf bigger than my self chiz chiz.
Molesworth is about youth and not wanting to live up to adults' expectations and keeping your own fantasy world active, even if you can't explain why you have to have it. It reminded me of silly plans I had and I was sad I forgot, and of teachers both well-meaning and not who expected me to do better. It is the perfect cure if you've been frustrated by a critically acclaimed book you just didn't enjoy or, worse, a motivational book that had nothing to say. Molesworth, technically, has nothing constructive to say, either. But it will make you feel better if you don't.
Side note: I wouldn't ever have known of Molesworth if it hadn't been for seeing Adrian Mole recommended in some British reading lists and doing some basic research. I liked Fran Townsend's series, but Geoffrey Willans's is even better. This mirrors how everyone tended to eclipse Adrian Mole in his series, e.g. Barry Kent wrote better.
Molesworth, the "goriller of 3b," complains about anything and everything, but not seriously. His younger brother, that weedy wet Basil Fotherington-Tomas, gurls, St. Custard's rivalry with Porridge Court, the grouchy skool dog, and even occasionally his grate freind Peason. (A year after reading, I was shocked to see Peason was really Pearson. I should have known it was a misspelling.) But he doesn't have any real conflicts beyond maybe failing if he does too badly. He's just thoroughly ridiculous, except if you're the sort of person who ever spaced out in class, you might be a little jealous he did it so much better. And he'd be quite good if he sat down to focus, because he'd realize the weedy wets you have to read in English class discuss the same themes he brings up, just with better grammar. But he has his own vision of life.
Ronald Searle's ghastly and hilarious illustrations, and while the book would stand on its own, they add to Molesworth's imaginative and laughable dreams and views on the world.
I originally checked The Compleat Molesworth out on interlibrary loan, and I read it twice before returning it and promptly buying a second-hand edition, despite (as Nigel might say) being a weedy wet who hav no space on a bookshelf bigger than my self chiz chiz.
Molesworth is about youth and not wanting to live up to adults' expectations and keeping your own fantasy world active, even if you can't explain why you have to have it. It reminded me of silly plans I had and I was sad I forgot, and of teachers both well-meaning and not who expected me to do better. It is the perfect cure if you've been frustrated by a critically acclaimed book you just didn't enjoy or, worse, a motivational book that had nothing to say. Molesworth, technically, has nothing constructive to say, either. But it will make you feel better if you don't.
Side note: I wouldn't ever have known of Molesworth if it hadn't been for seeing Adrian Mole recommended in some British reading lists and doing some basic research. I liked Fran Townsend's series, but Geoffrey Willans's is even better. This mirrors how everyone tended to eclipse Adrian Mole in his series, e.g. Barry Kent wrote better.
August 17, 2014
Molesworth, Geoffrey Willans
Terms from Down with Skool!, How to be Topp, Whizz for Atomms and Back in the Jug Agane (all published in the 1950s) that seemed vaguely familiar...
- Hogwarts
- wizard wheezes
- Scrimgeour
- 'hem hem.'
Terms from Down with Skool!, How to be Topp, Whizz for Atomms and Back in the Jug Agane (all published in the 1950s) that seemed vaguely familiar...
- Hogwarts
- wizard wheezes
- Scrimgeour
- 'hem hem.'
May 29, 2013
Nigel Molesworth himself would be horrified to see himself described in such a way, but there is something quintessentially English and beautifully vintage about Molesworth’s take on public school life. The terror of 3B would no doubt be disgusted that we saw him in such a wet and weedy way, but I guess it often happens that something intent on mocking the establishment becomes, eventually, part of the establishment. Through a series of vignettes, sketches and wild fancies of imagination, Molesworth skewers the regiment and routine of an English public school – taking apart the Masters, the subjects themselves, other pupils and even parents. This is a blunderbuss approach to satire, so some of it is quite hit or miss, but at its best it’s hilarious. One would probably get more out of it if one has been to an English public school (I was state school educated, so The Bash Street Kids will always be closer to my heart), but with the smell of chalk-dust and semolina entwined throughout, this is a pure English classic.
January 1, 2015
Read: March 1, 2002
I recommend this book whenever I get the chance. It's hard to get a hold of in the US (you have to buy it from AmazonUK, last I checked), but oh, so brilliant!
The book (actually four books in one) reads like the journal of a young British schoolboy with a very vivid imagination, a loathing for teachers and schoolwork, and a complete disregard for elementary spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Geoffrey Willans' delightfully mangled words are matched by the exquisitely cartoonish scribbles of Ronald Searle, illustrating Nigel Molesworth's accounts. The result is screamingly funny and worth twenty times whatever those crazy trans-Atlantic shipping costs work out to be.
Read it. Your life will truly be enriched.
I recommend this book whenever I get the chance. It's hard to get a hold of in the US (you have to buy it from AmazonUK, last I checked), but oh, so brilliant!
The book (actually four books in one) reads like the journal of a young British schoolboy with a very vivid imagination, a loathing for teachers and schoolwork, and a complete disregard for elementary spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Geoffrey Willans' delightfully mangled words are matched by the exquisitely cartoonish scribbles of Ronald Searle, illustrating Nigel Molesworth's accounts. The result is screamingly funny and worth twenty times whatever those crazy trans-Atlantic shipping costs work out to be.
Read it. Your life will truly be enriched.
December 19, 2024
4.5 stars
As any fule no, an evergreen classic of British humour that amuses me as much now oas it fifty years ago when I first read it. Originally published as four books this omnibus edition loses half a star for being a touch too long. Over four hundred pages the jokes inevitably start to become repetitious and the fun wears a bit thin. Best to be dipped into from time to time rather than read all in one go.
As any fule no, an evergreen classic of British humour that amuses me as much now oas it fifty years ago when I first read it. Originally published as four books this omnibus edition loses half a star for being a touch too long. Over four hundred pages the jokes inevitably start to become repetitious and the fun wears a bit thin. Best to be dipped into from time to time rather than read all in one go.
August 21, 2010
Howling funny book on school life. Every teacher dreads Molesworth and for good reason. Some of the slang is a bit confusing to figure out, but this one is worth it to read. Originally published as four books, and illustrated by Roald Searles.
February 5, 2012
You can get this book for less than $20, if you live in the U.S.
So what are you waiting for? I don't give out five-star evaluations without due consideration.
I will have more to say about the genius of "Molesworth" in due course.
So what are you waiting for? I don't give out five-star evaluations without due consideration.
I will have more to say about the genius of "Molesworth" in due course.
May 8, 2014
I think if I were a 12 year old British boy attending a boarding school I would have found this hilarious. As it is, this was a pain to finish. When it comes to British humor, I think I'll stick with Douglas Adams or PG Wodehouse.
February 3, 2013
I loved Molesworth when I was in my early teens. He's such a prat but so viciously funny with it. Very clever writing.
December 11, 2020
advanced, forthright, signifficant
August 27, 2024
Molesworth. The antidote to Harry Potter!
I first read ‘The Complete Molesworth’ in the early 1960s when I was a dayboy at a boarding school. It was a Catholic boarding school (run by Marist Brothers – poor man’s Jesuits, not middle class Englishmen); it was in Scotland (not the South – and heart – of middle class England); and I was, and I emphasise fortunately, a dayboy (I lived in town, I attended school daily … well, on the days I wasn’t truanting, which became increasingly rare as the years progressed).
I hated school, I was desperately unhappy there … Molesworth made me laugh and I re-cast the real people in the purgatory I endured with the names and roles of Molesworth-like characters.
And some 60 years later I’m reading it again … with a more critical eye (albeit it one dyed in nostalgia) – still scarred by my education but not actually damned by it (or so I keep telling myself).
And my immediate assessment?
This is not a book – or rather four books – to be read at a sitting!
Geoffrey Willans saw tales from the first Molesworth Diaries published in editions of ‘Punch’, 1939-41, before spending the war in the Navy. He’d been to public school, been a boarder, had gone on to be a teacher in such a school. The first of four Molesworth books would appear in 1953 (“Down with School”) – the four would be released as “The Complete Molesworth” in 1958, the year of Willans’ death … at the age of 47.
By 1953 Ronald Searle was the celebrity. He’d seen his first St.Trinian’s pieces published in 1941… then spent 1942-45 as a PoW of the Japanese, having been rounded up with the fall of Singapore. His book, “Hurrah for St.Trinian’s”, was published in 1948. He was, initially, very much the senior partner in the first Molesworth book. And he was no public school boy – he’d left school at 15, spent a couple of years at art college, then enlisted in the Royal Engineers six months before war broke out.
So, four Molesworth books dealt in one hand – a few years and a war in the making. And they (in this single volume) are best read, in my estimation, a chapter at a time – I repeat, don’t go for a single sitting or two.
While the first ‘book’ provides a scurrilous rather than forensic description of the English public school, the following three fall more into discrete storytelling mode – short chapters on a subject or incident or flight of fancy, often more like a sketch from a 1950s radio comedy (Willans writes in the vein of the Goons, he was a couple of decades before Python – he was very much in the tradition of English comedy of the absurd).
So, in the later volumes we get little anecdotal fantasies about subjects as diverse as betting on horses, space travel, summer holidays, or the arrival of TV (black and white in those days … like Searle’s illustrations).
Willans produces some incisive passages, plays with ideas, plays with words. He dissects the school curriculum, the school day, the routines and the rationale. He alludes to the discipline, the violence, the bullying. What he doesn’t touch on is the homosexuality or the potential for sexual abuse (by either staff or senior boys).
Searle’s cartoons don’t take prisoners. I love the Gaul marching into Italy … and Molesworth being welcomed back for the new term … or the sheer misery conveyed in the ‘soccer is super’ image. With a few economical lines he could capture comedy, chaos or pathos … images which tell stories in their own ‘write’. He could be tender with the right subject … he could be brutal.
Interestingly, one of the headmasters featured in the book is called ‘hoggwart’ – JK Rowling has a much more simplistic view of education … none of her masters display the aura of subdued psychotic violence which envelopes some of Willans’ masters. And I note that Sue Townsend said that, without Molesworth there would have been no Adrian Mole, so, if for nothing else, much thanks are owed Willans and Searle.
Meanwhile, I confess, from a personal perspective I could never look at Boris Johnson without seeing him as a Molesworth-like character, a cartoon-image of a human being posing as a politician in order to appear real even if he remained wholly out of touch with any reality which did not satisfy his immediate needs.
I first read ‘The Complete Molesworth’ in the early 1960s when I was a dayboy at a boarding school. It was a Catholic boarding school (run by Marist Brothers – poor man’s Jesuits, not middle class Englishmen); it was in Scotland (not the South – and heart – of middle class England); and I was, and I emphasise fortunately, a dayboy (I lived in town, I attended school daily … well, on the days I wasn’t truanting, which became increasingly rare as the years progressed).
I hated school, I was desperately unhappy there … Molesworth made me laugh and I re-cast the real people in the purgatory I endured with the names and roles of Molesworth-like characters.
And some 60 years later I’m reading it again … with a more critical eye (albeit it one dyed in nostalgia) – still scarred by my education but not actually damned by it (or so I keep telling myself).
And my immediate assessment?
This is not a book – or rather four books – to be read at a sitting!
Geoffrey Willans saw tales from the first Molesworth Diaries published in editions of ‘Punch’, 1939-41, before spending the war in the Navy. He’d been to public school, been a boarder, had gone on to be a teacher in such a school. The first of four Molesworth books would appear in 1953 (“Down with School”) – the four would be released as “The Complete Molesworth” in 1958, the year of Willans’ death … at the age of 47.
By 1953 Ronald Searle was the celebrity. He’d seen his first St.Trinian’s pieces published in 1941… then spent 1942-45 as a PoW of the Japanese, having been rounded up with the fall of Singapore. His book, “Hurrah for St.Trinian’s”, was published in 1948. He was, initially, very much the senior partner in the first Molesworth book. And he was no public school boy – he’d left school at 15, spent a couple of years at art college, then enlisted in the Royal Engineers six months before war broke out.
So, four Molesworth books dealt in one hand – a few years and a war in the making. And they (in this single volume) are best read, in my estimation, a chapter at a time – I repeat, don’t go for a single sitting or two.
While the first ‘book’ provides a scurrilous rather than forensic description of the English public school, the following three fall more into discrete storytelling mode – short chapters on a subject or incident or flight of fancy, often more like a sketch from a 1950s radio comedy (Willans writes in the vein of the Goons, he was a couple of decades before Python – he was very much in the tradition of English comedy of the absurd).
So, in the later volumes we get little anecdotal fantasies about subjects as diverse as betting on horses, space travel, summer holidays, or the arrival of TV (black and white in those days … like Searle’s illustrations).
Willans produces some incisive passages, plays with ideas, plays with words. He dissects the school curriculum, the school day, the routines and the rationale. He alludes to the discipline, the violence, the bullying. What he doesn’t touch on is the homosexuality or the potential for sexual abuse (by either staff or senior boys).
Searle’s cartoons don’t take prisoners. I love the Gaul marching into Italy … and Molesworth being welcomed back for the new term … or the sheer misery conveyed in the ‘soccer is super’ image. With a few economical lines he could capture comedy, chaos or pathos … images which tell stories in their own ‘write’. He could be tender with the right subject … he could be brutal.
Interestingly, one of the headmasters featured in the book is called ‘hoggwart’ – JK Rowling has a much more simplistic view of education … none of her masters display the aura of subdued psychotic violence which envelopes some of Willans’ masters. And I note that Sue Townsend said that, without Molesworth there would have been no Adrian Mole, so, if for nothing else, much thanks are owed Willans and Searle.
Meanwhile, I confess, from a personal perspective I could never look at Boris Johnson without seeing him as a Molesworth-like character, a cartoon-image of a human being posing as a politician in order to appear real even if he remained wholly out of touch with any reality which did not satisfy his immediate needs.
September 4, 2018
Ronald Searle was one of Britain’s best-loved cartoonists, and Geoffrey Willans (if I remember correctly) a former teacher. If there is such a thing as a genius, then Willans and Searle together were one.
The Molesworth books purport to be instructional manuals by an English public schoolboy named Nigel Molesworth, about how to survive the school experience. From the day the first was published in 1953, they became a wild success, especially with schoolchildren. They are still in print and still eminently applicable (which says something both about the quality of the books, and about the nature of the British school system, which even at that point hadn’t changed much in 400 years).
The wild misspelling that permeates them caused hysteria among parents, and their removal from many school libraries (the books, not the parents). Nevertheless, many phrases from them have since gone into the English lexicon, particularly “enuff said” and “as any fule kno”.
The quartet consists of:
Down With Skool!
How to Be Topp
Whizz for Atomms
Back in the Jug Agane
and an omnibus edition,
The Compleet Molesworth, reprinted by Penguin as
Molesworth
These are considered absolute classics in the UK along with gems such as 1066 and All That. Whether they’re intelligible to anyone but Britons is another matter; but I didn’t think Monty Python would be, and I was wrong about that...
P.S. And should you be wondering (during reading) exactly what Treens might be, they’re the myrmidons of that most unforgettable villain The Mekon (whose portrait you can see here), from the wonderful contemporary comic-book series Dan Dare.
The Molesworth books purport to be instructional manuals by an English public schoolboy named Nigel Molesworth, about how to survive the school experience. From the day the first was published in 1953, they became a wild success, especially with schoolchildren. They are still in print and still eminently applicable (which says something both about the quality of the books, and about the nature of the British school system, which even at that point hadn’t changed much in 400 years).
The wild misspelling that permeates them caused hysteria among parents, and their removal from many school libraries (the books, not the parents). Nevertheless, many phrases from them have since gone into the English lexicon, particularly “enuff said” and “as any fule kno”.
The quartet consists of:
Down With Skool!
How to Be Topp
Whizz for Atomms
Back in the Jug Agane
and an omnibus edition,
The Compleet Molesworth, reprinted by Penguin as
Molesworth
These are considered absolute classics in the UK along with gems such as 1066 and All That. Whether they’re intelligible to anyone but Britons is another matter; but I didn’t think Monty Python would be, and I was wrong about that...
P.S. And should you be wondering (during reading) exactly what Treens might be, they’re the myrmidons of that most unforgettable villain The Mekon (whose portrait you can see here), from the wonderful contemporary comic-book series Dan Dare.
July 2, 2018
I first read the Willans/Searle series of Molesworth books when I was in late primary school and at the time I found 'Down With Skool', 'How to be Topp', Whizz for Atomms' and 'Back in Jugg Agane' to be very funny, if a little strange. The slightly alien world of the setting of the books, a fictional English public school, formed a significant part of the comedy, however the behaviours of the boys (including Molesworth, Molesworth 2, Grabber, Peason and Fotherington-Tomas hello birds hello sky) were all familiar enough to allow some degree of identification.
Now, roughly 40 years since I first read these books I find that the Molesworth novels are perhaps a little dated and the quality of the writing is variable through each individual book. Willans was a genius in using the form of writing as if he was Molesworth himself, with the associated misspellings etc, however by 'Back in Jugg Agane' it feels as if he has worked out all the comedic nuggets in this vein. There is no narrative per se , and each book is made up of numerous vignettes and sketches. Some work very well, particularly those in the first two books that are part of this anthology. However by the last book they are a little stale, and Willans appears to be reaching further for his subjects or settings to throw Molesworth at or into.
Having said that there is still a lot to enjoy about 'The Compleet Molesworth', including the wonderful illustrations provided by Ronald Searle. I don't think it is too much of a stretch to argue that Willan's comedic prose may have sunk without a trace, or be seen as an artefact from a highly esoteric setting if it hadn't been for Searle's illustrations. The drawings both complement and reinforce the humour of the prose, and in some cases take on a hilarious life of their own.
I may be a little harsh on these books as I am reading them through older, more critical eyes. I'm unsure if Molesworth would find much appeal for children today, however I hope his exploits will still be read for many a year. Willans and Searle have produced a series of classic comedic books that deserve an audience as long as children go to school and as long as they find ways to challenge or undermine the world of adults.
Now, roughly 40 years since I first read these books I find that the Molesworth novels are perhaps a little dated and the quality of the writing is variable through each individual book. Willans was a genius in using the form of writing as if he was Molesworth himself, with the associated misspellings etc, however by 'Back in Jugg Agane' it feels as if he has worked out all the comedic nuggets in this vein. There is no narrative per se , and each book is made up of numerous vignettes and sketches. Some work very well, particularly those in the first two books that are part of this anthology. However by the last book they are a little stale, and Willans appears to be reaching further for his subjects or settings to throw Molesworth at or into.
Having said that there is still a lot to enjoy about 'The Compleet Molesworth', including the wonderful illustrations provided by Ronald Searle. I don't think it is too much of a stretch to argue that Willan's comedic prose may have sunk without a trace, or be seen as an artefact from a highly esoteric setting if it hadn't been for Searle's illustrations. The drawings both complement and reinforce the humour of the prose, and in some cases take on a hilarious life of their own.
I may be a little harsh on these books as I am reading them through older, more critical eyes. I'm unsure if Molesworth would find much appeal for children today, however I hope his exploits will still be read for many a year. Willans and Searle have produced a series of classic comedic books that deserve an audience as long as children go to school and as long as they find ways to challenge or undermine the world of adults.
September 24, 2024
Amusing, and yes, his spelling is atrocious. So much so, that at times I was uncertain what he really meant to say. The laughs are fairly low level and bratty, typical of his age. However, having read the entire Adrian Mole series, the Molesworth series didn't resonate. Williams' homage (?) to the life of a British public school boy, who is frankly a twit, chizz chizz (see book for reference), becomes repetitive and formulaic. It misses the sometimes subtle humor, always riveting accounts of true awkwardness, yearnings, and attempts at finding oneself that the Adrian Mole series does so well. But if you want some silliness, this works. Have your Latin dictionary at hand.
May 13, 2021
Rather dated humour but still relevant to those of us of a certain age who can recall English boarding school life. A mixture of laugh aloud and sometimes tedious; I got fed up with the spelling mistakes that after a while stopped representing a child's voice and just became an obstacle to overcome.
I recommend just reading a chapter occasionally because trying to read it all in one sitting was too much. It is charming in many ways and very interesting as a period piece.
Recommended for anyone who has endured boarding school life!
I recommend just reading a chapter occasionally because trying to read it all in one sitting was too much. It is charming in many ways and very interesting as a period piece.
Recommended for anyone who has endured boarding school life!
Read
May 29, 2021I wanted to like it, I really did. It's amusing. But I just don't want to read about public schoolboy exploits. Not when, as any fule kno, the Cabinet is stuffed full of the privileged idiots.
I've just realised that I'm so so tired of reading everything written from a perspective of straight white able male privilege. I'm done with that. It's dull as hell. I want diversity and inclusion and intersectionality. I want to read about Black and Asian voices, queer voices, disabled voices; the voices of people who have been kept voiceless for generations.
I need to review my Want To Read shelf.
I've just realised that I'm so so tired of reading everything written from a perspective of straight white able male privilege. I'm done with that. It's dull as hell. I want diversity and inclusion and intersectionality. I want to read about Black and Asian voices, queer voices, disabled voices; the voices of people who have been kept voiceless for generations.
I need to review my Want To Read shelf.
February 21, 2023
All four books in the Molesworth series featuring the usual suspects. Nigel molesworth the goriller of form 3B at st. custards as any fule kno. Also molesworth 2, his brother who hav a fas like a squashed tomato, peason who look like a monkey, fotherington-Tomas who is a weedy wet, grabber the head boy. photos 7/6, sigismund the mad maths master, grimes the headmaster, the skool dog and milions of sossages. Chiz chiz chiz.
Illustrations by Ronald Searle, like "Nigel is a slow deleveloper" showing a gorilla in a school uniform.
Illustrations by Ronald Searle, like "Nigel is a slow deleveloper" showing a gorilla in a school uniform.
May 5, 2024
This is a failsafe cheer up for anyone with a puerile sense of humour. Geoffrey Willans isn't like anything else, but I guess a love of the Blandings novels by Wodehouse would fit with the outpourings of Nigel Molesworth. Experience in an English prep school helps, too, especially when food is mentioned - it was just as awful 45 years ago; the prunes really were revolting. It has been my cheer up book for many years - I have three copies placed strategically in different parts of the house.. "Pile in, Carruthers, strate for goal!"
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