Geoffrey Willans (1911–1958)
Author of Molesworth
About the Author
Series
Works by Geoffrey Willans
The Whistling Arrow 1 copy
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Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Willans, Herbert Geoffrey
- Birthdate
- 1911-02-04
- Date of death
- 1958-08-06
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Blundells School, Tiverton, England, UK
Glyngarth preparatory school in Cheltenham - Occupations
- author
journalist
schoolmaster - Nationality
- UK
- Associated Place (for map)
- UK
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Folio Archives 346: The Compleet Molesworth by Geoffrey Willans 2007 in Folio Society Devotees (October 2023)
Reviews
This is one of the great classics of comic writing, as any fule kno.
A sequel to Down With Skool, it's the first Molesworth book that I ever read. And it is still hilarious. The illustrations by Ronald Searle are essential. The humour does rest on a small amount of knowledge of English boarding schools. But even a GURL not even born in the 1950s will probably recognise most of it from the Enid Blyton et al boarding school novel.
It's packed with hints and tips on how to do well in various show more subjects, like Latin Alg Geom Hist etc, as well as how to divert or play tricks on the masters. With a fake report card ready to copy, and a guide to your fellow students: cads, oiks, goody-goodies, bulies and snekes.
My favourite chapter is the one on French. I'm sure we'd all find that the guide to French as spoken by grown-ups (a-vay voo ash-et-ay le gin?) is most helpful. And the review of the French reader is hysterical. Will Papa thro the sissy wet Armand to the lions? We can only hope. show less
A sequel to Down With Skool, it's the first Molesworth book that I ever read. And it is still hilarious. The illustrations by Ronald Searle are essential. The humour does rest on a small amount of knowledge of English boarding schools. But even a GURL not even born in the 1950s will probably recognise most of it from the Enid Blyton et al boarding school novel.
It's packed with hints and tips on how to do well in various show more subjects, like Latin Alg Geom Hist etc, as well as how to divert or play tricks on the masters. With a fake report card ready to copy, and a guide to your fellow students: cads, oiks, goody-goodies, bulies and snekes.
My favourite chapter is the one on French. I'm sure we'd all find that the guide to French as spoken by grown-ups (a-vay voo ash-et-ay le gin?) is most helpful. And the review of the French reader is hysterical. Will Papa thro the sissy wet Armand to the lions? We can only hope. show less
I teach school, which means that I am forever being serenaded with laments of how much better education was in some bygone era. Students were more respectful; students were more intelligent; most of all, students were more devoted to learning.
These experiences provide me just one more reason to love Down with Skool! Geoffrey Willans’ book purports to be the extended description by one young Nigel Molesworth of his English boarding school, St. Custard’s. Published in the 1950s, Down with show more Skool! proves what we all secretly suspect: that students have always been as fidgety, rebellious, ignorant, lazy, and pigheaded as they are today. As a schoolmaster himself, Willans had plenty of experience with early 20th century ignoramuses.
Nigel Molesworth, the self-described “curse of St. Custard’s,” is a blockhead, not to put it too finely. (He is known as Molesworth 1 at St. Custard’s in order to distinguish him from his even stupider younger brother, Molesworth 2.) Nigel’s spelling, punctuation, and syntax are atrocious, and he finds French, Latin, English (especially poetry), mathematics, geography, science — actually, anything academic — a complete waste of his valuable time. He finds his schoolmasters “weedy” and “wet,” and he devotes an entire chapter of the book to strategies for getting his masters off-task and for avoiding work.
But allow me to quote Molesworth himself on Macbeth:
I could join Molesworth’s English master in weeping.
Seriously, though, at just 114 pages, a reader can knock off this pretty funny book in just a few hours. Molesworth’s rantings will delight even a hard-hearted schoolteacher like me, while giving one an appreciation for all of the non-Molesworths in one’s class. Lastly, it provides this excellent explanation for endless supply of idiots in the world:
It hapens very often that parents think they are worred about the progress a boy is making. they do not realise that all boys are numskulls with o branes which is not surprising when you look at the parents really the whole thing goes on and on and there is no stoping it it is a vicious circle.
Thus shall it be ever. show less
These experiences provide me just one more reason to love Down with Skool! Geoffrey Willans’ book purports to be the extended description by one young Nigel Molesworth of his English boarding school, St. Custard’s. Published in the 1950s, Down with show more Skool! proves what we all secretly suspect: that students have always been as fidgety, rebellious, ignorant, lazy, and pigheaded as they are today. As a schoolmaster himself, Willans had plenty of experience with early 20th century ignoramuses.
Nigel Molesworth, the self-described “curse of St. Custard’s,” is a blockhead, not to put it too finely. (He is known as Molesworth 1 at St. Custard’s in order to distinguish him from his even stupider younger brother, Molesworth 2.) Nigel’s spelling, punctuation, and syntax are atrocious, and he finds French, Latin, English (especially poetry), mathematics, geography, science — actually, anything academic — a complete waste of his valuable time. He finds his schoolmasters “weedy” and “wet,” and he devotes an entire chapter of the book to strategies for getting his masters off-task and for avoiding work.
But allow me to quote Molesworth himself on Macbeth:
Sometimes we hav to recite which is girly in the extreme and there is no chance to read famous CRIB which you copied out in prep, when I recite it is something like this:Tomow and tomow and tomow
Um ah um ah
Tomow and tomow and tomow
Um — ah creeps creeps in the last syll–
No!
Tomowandtomowandtomow
Creeps in this um um
Out!
OUT!
Brief candle
Yes i kno sir half a mo sir
Yes
fie
O fie!
Um um tis an unweeded syllable an un–
No!
Tomowandtomowandtomow etc.
In other words quite frankly i just don’t kno it.
Also quite frankly
I JUST COULDN’T CARE LESS
What use will that be to me in this atomic age?
Occasionally english masters chide me for this point of view o molesworth one you must learn the value of spiritual things until i spray them with 200 rounds of my bakterial gun. i then plant the British in the masters inkwell and declare a whole holiday for the skool. boo to shakespeare.
So much for English masters.
I could join Molesworth’s English master in weeping.
Seriously, though, at just 114 pages, a reader can knock off this pretty funny book in just a few hours. Molesworth’s rantings will delight even a hard-hearted schoolteacher like me, while giving one an appreciation for all of the non-Molesworths in one’s class. Lastly, it provides this excellent explanation for endless supply of idiots in the world:
It hapens very often that parents think they are worred about the progress a boy is making. they do not realise that all boys are numskulls with o branes which is not surprising when you look at the parents really the whole thing goes on and on and there is no stoping it it is a vicious circle.
Thus shall it be ever. show less
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 show more 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. show less
Molesworth 1 (so called by his schoolmasters and peers to distinguish him from his younger and stupider brother, Molesworth show more 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. show less
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 show more 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 show less
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