Norman Hunter (1) (1899–1995)

I remember reading this as a child in the orange and black Penguin edition. I'm not sure why. It must have been something to do with the absurdity of the inventions and the language. Later I picked up a copy of the 75th diamond anniversary published by Red Fox in 2008 and read the chapter about the Professor borrowing a book. His absent-mindedness leads to him borrowing and losing 14 copies of the same book: The life and likings of a lobster. He manages to borrow the book from 14 libraries show more in Pagwell. This is absurd, of course. Which town has as many as 14 branch libraries today? Suspending my disbelief I read in and was greatly amused by the ending. All the copies were in the Professor's house, classified and placed on different shelves. The first paragraph is very good too, describing the atmosphere of Great Pagwell library" 'Some of the library men were feeding the book worms, others were rubbing out the pencil marks that people aren't supposed to make on books but often do. Others were looking to see if anyone had left anything useful in the books, which they never do, only old bus tickets and things". show less

I thought these stories were wonderful when I was about 9, and I still do. My favourite story ('The Professor Borrows a Book') will have a special resonance for many on LibraryThing. The professor cannot find the copy of The Life and Likings of a Lobster that he has borrowed from Great Pagwell library, and has to borrow another copy from Little Pagwell library. Then both are overdue, and he can't find either, and has to rush to Upper Pagwell library for a copy to return to the other show more libraries and then take out again. Eventually, when he is cycling round keeping fourteen libraries going on one copy, the librarians all come to tea, and find all the lost books shelved in different sections of his library ('Lobsters', 'Biographies', 'Natural History', 'Folklore', etc.). Clearly, Professor Branestawm needs LibraryThing! show less

I love the theory of Professor Branestawm - the nutty professor who gets into all sorts of scrapes when his inventions go wrong. The inventions, brought to life so beautifully by Heath Robinson, more or less lived up to my expectations. I don't know whether I'm a little jaded, or I really have lost my humur mojo, but I found some of the stories mildly amusing, more of them irritating, and a couple, just a couple, had me laughing out loud.

There are 14 incredible adventures, and I laughed at show more the Pancake one (partly because I love pancakes and would have loved a machine making them for me - so would my mum, I reckon) and the Too-many Professors, which was a wonderful confection of chaos I could really imagine. I also delighted in no.3 The Professor Borrows a Book. I suspect the intricacies of the library system described would be lost on today's youngster, since libraries are under threat, and the thought of each village having its own library is just a pipe-dream. We still have a mobile library in our rural area, which you have to be ready for on the right day of the month for the right half hour when it is scheduled to be in the village! Otherwise it's a bus to the main library in the city, although there is one attached to a school in a nearby town. I digress. But the Professor's principle of getting a copy of the same book out of one library in order to check it back into a different one is not unlike the way some people use credit cards, so I expect people will relate to it.

I kept wondering whether the book is too dated for the modern MG reader. Frankly, I was surprised that it is given a 9 reader designation, since I felt the stories were suitable for six and upwards. Some of the words are quite long, and there is a lot of reflective narrative that is eminently suitable for a bedtime story, but I'm not sure how well it would be received by a young reader. I will give my copy to a friend of the right age and ask for feedback. He's already read it, I expect!

The quote from Charlie Higson on the front cover "Can still make a modern kid laugh like a drain" is something I bear in mind. Charlie Higson writes hugely popular kids books featuring vampires and seriously messy stuff. I assume he knows what a modern kid laughs at. It's just that I can easily put four words in front of that quote, which makes more sense to me. Those are: "I wonder if it" .

No, I'm being too hard. The plots are ridiculous in the slapstick tradition and very clever. The names of people, places and organisations are full of delightful puns. It is beautifully written. And I laughed out loud at some of them. What more do you want? show less

As sometimes happens, a random conversation at work about lost glasses led to me talking about a book I'd read at school MANY years ago. I never forgot daft old Prof Branestawm and his five pairs of glasses, including one pair to help him find the other four. Maybe it was just the rose-colored hue of nostalgia, but I remembered having enjoyed the stories - first read to the class by a favorite teacher, then re-read for myself.
The conversation led me to look up Branestawm on the library show more catalogue, to find that only two titles were available - both from reserve store. I requested them and have been reading the short stories at the bus stop on the way to and from work.
They are most definitely dated. The story of the lost library books could NOT happen today, with every copy having its own unique bar code and number.
But they are still fun.
The original absent-minded nutty Professor, Branestawm is delightfully silly, Deadshott is pompous, Flittersnoop is flighty.
It is a slice of the past, and I'm glad I revisited it. show less