Down with Skool! (1953)

The curse of St Custard's strikes back! Uterly wet sissies and weeds beware..

This has always been and always will be one of the few books that has ever been able to make me laugh out loud. The tale of St. Custard's and the Masters and Pupils there is just hilarious. The main character is of course the famous or rather infamous Nigel Molesworth. Others who appear are Peason,Gillibrand,Grabber, and not forgetting Fotherington-Thomas(who is wet and a sissy). It contains a full lowdown on Skools,swots,snekes,cads,prigs,bulies,headmasters,criket,fopball,dirty roters,funks,parents,masters,wizard wheezes,weeds,aple pie beds & various other chizzes - in fact the lot.
The book as you see is written using Molesworth's unique spelling and the drawings which add so much to the fun are by Ronald Searle. ( )

That rare thing, an illustrated book the appeals to children, teenagers and adults. The Searle drawings are still funny, and so is the sublime text. You don't have to be an ex public school kid, either. I'm certainly not, as any fule kno. One million stars. ( )

The first book in the Molesworth series. A hilarious satire of English boarding school life. The book developed from a series of Punch magazine stories. Brilliant ink cartoons by Ronald Searle. Idiosyncratic spelling and references now quite dated, for example Latin quotations. On the title page it says "contanes:
Full lowdown on skools, swots, snekes, cads, prigs bulies headmasters, criket foopball, dirty roters, funks, parents, masters, wizard wheezes, weeds, aple pie beds and various other chizzes - in fact THE LOT." Chapters include descriptions of headmasters and their standard speeches, different types of masters, lessons and how to avoid them, parents and how to torture them, school food, and much more. This was my parents' book, and I loved it when I was in junior high school. ( )