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Jennings #3
Jennings' Little Hut
Supersonic hoo-hah! Jennings and Darbishire watched with mounting horror. Earthquakes and landslides seemed to be happening before their eyes. The little hut was heaving like a thing possessed. ‘Oh, fish-hooks!’ breathed Jennings in dismay. ‘He’s smashing up the place like a bulldozer!’ The woodland at Linbury Court becomes squatters’ territory when Jennings comes up with the idea of building huts out of reeds and branches. Jennings and Darbishire are thrilled with their construction, which even includes a patented prefabricated ventilating shaft, a special irrigation drainage canal and a pontoon suspension bridge! Gruesome hornswoggler! But things can only go horribly wrong for Jennings when he is put in charge of Elmer, the treasured goldfish, and even worse when the Headmaster pays the squatters a visit. And if Jennings thinks that a game of cricket will be far less trouble, he’s going to be knocked for six! Rotten chizzler!
210 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1951
3 people are currently reading
77 people want to read
About the author
Anthony Buckeridge
112 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
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
March 6, 2022
La bibliothèque verte offre toujours de belles lectures…une édition de « Bennett et sa cabane » datant de 1975 retrouvée dans une malle de livres m’a permis de passer un très bon moment, je l’avais déjà évoqué dans une autre revue, mais je trouve dommage les modernisations des ouvrages de cette collection (Le club des cinq, Alice, etc.): le vocabulaire, le choix du temps, etc. me semblent beaucoup plus intéressants dans ces anciennes éditions que dans les nouvelles versions, où l’emploi du présent, par exemple, semble être la norme. Bon en tout cas un très bon moment de lecture avec Bennett et Mortimer.
August 11, 2019
My father had 'Jennings and Darbishire' on his shelf, which I read and re-read on many an occasion as I grew up. Since then, I've found various other installments in the series in second hand bookshops, and they're always a damnably fun read. This was no exception. I laughed my ass off on many an occasion as Jennings' problems unfolded. Jolly good fun, in an old school, 1950s way!
January 27, 2019
I love this book. If it was possible I would give it 6 stars.
July 29, 2011
Nouveau roman retraçant les facéties de Bennett dans son collège anglais. La construction d'une cabane en constitue le fil rouge car, on s'en doute, cette activité ludique est strictement prohibée par le règlement.
Pas de la littérature de haut vol, mais à 10 ans, ça passe encore.
Pas de la littérature de haut vol, mais à 10 ans, ça passe encore.
May 3, 2019
One of the Jennings classics. This book is a delight. It evokes a lost world, not just childhood itself, but an England that is gone.
March 21, 2023
Wizzo, apart from the appearance of the n word.
June 19, 2023
The Jennings stories, as I have said in previous reviews of different books in the series, are a callback to a time of childhood and innocence, and very funny. Like the Just William books, they show the world from the point of view of 10-year-old children, starkly different from the grownup's vision, but the style here is more innocent and cute. They remind me more of the Little Nicholas books (Le Petit Nicolas) by René Goscinny and Jean-Jacques Sempé.
This one started a bit slow with the details of the construction of the boys' huts on a marshy ground on school property, but it soon becomes classic Jennings, as Bromwich Major's goldfish, Elmer, and later General Merridew and his grandson get involved. Jennings, always accompanied by the hapless Darbishire, will of course find a way to inadvertently get in more and more trouble and cause all kind of chaos around himself. Very funny and sweet escapist read.
This one started a bit slow with the details of the construction of the boys' huts on a marshy ground on school property, but it soon becomes classic Jennings, as Bromwich Major's goldfish, Elmer, and later General Merridew and his grandson get involved. Jennings, always accompanied by the hapless Darbishire, will of course find a way to inadvertently get in more and more trouble and cause all kind of chaos around himself. Very funny and sweet escapist read.
February 8, 2021
So there's a spot of marshy land on Linbury Court school property, and Jennings and Darbishire build a crude hut there, inspiring other kids to do the same. As long as nothing gets too crazy, the "Archbeako" (headmaster) will accept the new trend, but when Jennings and Darbishire are involved ... Will Mr. Carter wonder why Jennings is walking around with a pane of glass? Will Sir Richard Grenville smash the Spanish Armada? What will happen to Bromo's goldfish?
Typical fun for the series, slightly better than the previous volume.
Typical fun for the series, slightly better than the previous volume.
August 7, 2023
Thus has never been one of my favourites, so I re-read to see if I could pin it down. Unlike any other Jennings I have read, it is a slow starter. The first chapter or two don't "kick in", but the episode with Bromwich Major's goldfish and Darbyshire's last wicket heroics for the house team (every other possible replacement is either in detention for not doing well enough in Old Wilkie's Trig Test or in the San with mumps. Then its back to the huts, with one final bit of "Corwhumping" as Jennings somehow manages to destroy the headmaster's beloved prize cucumbers...
October 25, 2022
It's always fun seeing Jennings and Darbishire fell into trouble and did their best to solve it (on their own way) and funny how fortune often plays with them. And how they racket in misunderstanding by their own words!
I like that they got permish to build huts and had fun outdoor activities. If I could go back to the past, I'd like to build－if not a hut－a kind of hideout or basecamp with my friends in which we could have a little picnic in there!
I like that they got permish to build huts and had fun outdoor activities. If I could go back to the past, I'd like to build－if not a hut－a kind of hideout or basecamp with my friends in which we could have a little picnic in there!
August 11, 2023
NOT RECOMMENDED
A quick bit of recreational nostalgic reading after Ali Smith's seasonal quartet. Sadly, the law of diminishing returns had a grip on this from the start. Compared to the first two in the series this felt tired, slow, predictable and surprisingly lacking in humour. I'm hoping my next dip into the Buckeridge oeuvre will see a return to the bright, sweet, more nuanced (and funnier) writing that featured in the first two books.
July 17, 2018
Part of me fears that I am finally growing out of Jennings, but I hope that isn't the case, and I don't really believe it is. I just think it's possible to read him too often. Most of the chapters of this volume started life as plays on the radio. Having read all those plays recently it was a bit too soon to be reading all the same plots all over again. But there is nothing wrong with the book and I'm sure that after a few years have passed I will enjoy reading it again, but it would probably be more fun to be reading it to children, to see the reaction of those who have never read it before and for whom the story still holds an element of surprise.
June 19, 2020
How I would have liked to go to a school where I could scramble around in the mud by a pond and build huts.
I didn't but this book made me feel like I did. Thank God though by the sound of the other reviews I have the original texts. No flapjacks and pounds for me. What's wrong with a doughnut? They're nice.
I didn't but this book made me feel like I did. Thank God though by the sound of the other reviews I have the original texts. No flapjacks and pounds for me. What's wrong with a doughnut? They're nice.
September 26, 2017
My 4-star rating is for the book with the original 1964 text, NOT the awful radio show and NOT the execrable revised text text paperback edition.
October 28, 2021
More hilarious mishaps as Jennings and his sidekick Darbishire build themselves a hut by the school pond.
January 23, 2023
Very entertaining.
March 6, 2014
Mark Williams reads one of Anthony Buckeridge's classic school stories, abridged in five parts by Roy Apps.
'Until Darbishire had finished making his famous ventilating-shaft out of that disused drain-pipe, it was just as well they had got air-conditioned walls. It was only a little hut, but Jennings was very proud of it. And the other boys at Linbury Court were proud of their huts too.
Broadcast on:
BBC Radio 4, 7:45pm Sunday 31st January 2010
Duration:
15 minutes
Available until:
8:02pm Sunday 7th February 2010
Categories:
Children's, Drama, Classic & Period
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 30, 2024
This is an overall funny and enjoyable Jennings book, with a few cricket scenes and nonsensical conversations that go on a bit too long. Unlike last time (Jennings Follows A Clue), the underlying theme is fairly innocuous but, with the exception of Mr Pemberton-Oakes' attempt to use the typewriter, the best bits really have nothing to do with the huts.
Highlight: Mr Wilkins goes swimming.
Lowlight: an overlong and unnecessary metaphor is used to tell us that Jennings has started running after Roger Merridew.
Highlight: Mr Wilkins goes swimming.
Lowlight: an overlong and unnecessary metaphor is used to tell us that Jennings has started running after Roger Merridew.
March 27, 2011
A working class boy (me) meets jolly japes at a public (for non Brits read that as private) school with Jennings and Derbyshire. Loved it.......probably my version of a fantasy novel at such a tender age (8 I think), although I suspect it also led to my still festering resentment more than 40 years later of the class system in the UK and how it is underpinned by a privately educated elite. Tories out!!!! Sorry feeling all political this am - lol
August 27, 2025
Must have read this three times as a child. Learnt all I ever will about Sir Richard Grenville and still wonder to this day why Bromwich Major’s mother had to drive at “four miles a fortnight” with a goldfish in a tank instead of putting it in a plastic bag of water like a sensible person.
September 18, 2014
This one really establishes the winning formula that all the best Jennings books follow without fail, namely an episodic style with one or two main plot points to bind everything together.
Highlight: Mr Wilkins goes for an evening swim.
Highlight: Mr Wilkins goes for an evening swim.
July 4, 2016
I was probably about 8 years old when I read this and loved it as much as I loved all those Enid Blyton school stories. Having 2 brothers meant I could relate to the adventures and scrapes that boys got into.
March 31, 2016
Funny, but not the best Jennings
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews