Jennings and Darbishire

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Addeddate 2022-05-06 06:47:34 Identifier jennings_202205 Identifier-ark ark:/13960/s24d3j630wq Ocr tesseract 5.

Much of the humour stemmed from misunderstandings attributable to Jennings’ literal-mindedness and impetuosity. 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. When we were children, we were allowed to take a book to church to read through the meditative parts of the service and sermon. Under the patronage of Miss Thorpe, Linbury is going green - collecting of rubbish, recycling, distribution of leaflets to raise awareness.The two friends are able, at length, to persuade the headmaster to rescind the ban on hut-building, and inadvertently show the daughter-in-law of a distinguished Old Boy, General Merridew, that the school is just the right place to send her young son. Another big difference with the two Blyton series is that Jennings and his fellow-pupils never get older or progress to more senior forms. Set in a traditional English boys’ boarding school, and written by a former prep school teacher, the series revolves around the spirited, well-intentioned Jennings and his cautious best friend Darbishire. Nor are there any references to ‘dramas’ or tragedies at home, and there are no ‘exotic’ characters like Carlotta or Claudine in St Clare’s, or even any ‘jokers’ like Alicia Johns in Malory Towers.

I re-read it recently, and let’s say it’s several decades on from when I was first enthralled by Jennings and Darbishire.Inherently more cautious than his best friend, he usually finds himself drawn into situations in which he would rather not be involved. Venables, Atkinson, Temple, Bromwich (Major) – all are classmates of Jennings in Form 3, and fellow boarders, who share Dormitory 4 with Jennings and Darbishire. For the real Jennings experience, seek out the old Collins hardbacks, preferably with dustjackets intact. I think I was eleven, as I remember borrowing it from the library in my new school when I was in the Lower Thirds (equivalent of Year 7 today). The had unearthed the sensational story of how Atkinson had found a caterpillar in his cabbage; but as it had happened the term before last, they felt that this could hardly be headlined as late news.

Jennings' Aunt Angela sends him a printing press for his birthday, so he and Darby decide to launch a third-form newspaper. 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. And Old Wilkie saves the day when Jennings conjures up a potential disaster at the end of term concert. In both cases, the boys never age: Greyfriars began in 1908 and ran until 1940, so it was necessary that the characters did not age. 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.Diarmid was a prep schoolboy boarding at Linbury Court Preparatory School, where the headmaster was Mr Pemberton-Oakes. They are unusual in that few school stories were written to be deliberately humorous, and indeed the boys’ school story genre had long been in decline by the 50s. The Jennings books are school stories, set in Linbury Court School, so the most obvious comparison is with Blyton’s St Clare’s (six books, 1941-1945) and Malory Towers (six books, 1946-1951) series*. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.

In Jennings’ Little Hut, the headmaster decides that the huts near the pond in the school grounds which the boys have constructed with diligence and care, are unsafe; as a result Jennings and Darbishire are in rather bad odour with their schoolmates. Another series of six episodes – simply named Jennings with David Schulten in the title role – aired on the BBC in 1966.She makes a snap decision to flee to Roma Nova – her dead mother’s homeland, and last remnant of the Roman Empire in the 21st century. Fossilized fishoo In that equally imaginary world, my first heroine Aurelia’s child is home-schooled in the 1960s with a tutor although she did attend a private girls’ school in London when Aurelia was posted there. All in all, Jennings Goes to School is an excellent read for both children and adults; splendid if you need something light and not too challenging, and want a good laugh.