School is 'wet and weedy', according to Nigel Molesworth, the 'goriller of 3B', 'curse of St Custard's' and superb chronicler of fifties English life. Nothing escapes his disaffected eye and he has little time for such things as botany walks and cissy poetry with an assortment of swots, snekes and oiks. Instead he is very good at missing lessons, charming masters and putting down little brothers, in fact he is exceptional at most things except spelling. Wildly funny and full of sharp observations on life, the 'Molesworth tetralogy' is magnificently complemented by the illustrations of Ronald Searle.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Geoffrey Willans, a one-time schoolmaster, in addition to writing the four Molesworth books, now in Penguin Classics in the U.K., was a feature writer for the BBC before his untimely death at the age of forty-seven.
Ronald Searle, is best known as the creator of the St. Trinian's schoolgirl cartoons, collected for the first time and published by Rookery as St. Trinian's: The Entire Appalling Business. His work includes nearly forty covers for The New Yorker, political illustrations for Le Monde, and the animal illustrations of Beastly Feasts! (Overlook). --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Ronald Searle, is best known as the creator of the St. Trinian's schoolgirl cartoons, collected for the first time and published by Rookery as St. Trinian's: The Entire Appalling Business. His work includes nearly forty covers for The New Yorker, political illustrations for Le Monde, and the animal illustrations of Beastly Feasts! (Overlook). --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Simply the best, as any fule kno,
By
This review is from: Molesworth (Penguin Modern Classics) (Paperback)
Ronald Searle was one of Britain's best-loved cartoonists, and Geoffrey Willans (if I remember correctly) a former teacher. If there is such a thing as a genius, then Willans and Searle together were one.
The Molesworth books purport to be instructional manuals by an English public schoolboy named Nigel Molesworth, about how to survive the school experience. From the day the first was published in 1953, they became a wild success, especially with schoolchildren. They are still in print and still eminently applicable (which says something both about the quality of the books, and about the nature of the British school system, which even at that point hadn't changed much in 400 years). The wild misspelling that permeates them caused hysteria among parents, and their removal from many school libraries (the books, not the parents). Nevertheless, many phrases from them have since gone into the English lexicon, particularly "enuff said" and "as any fule kno". The quartet consists of: Down with Skool How to be Topp Whizz for Atomms Back in the Jug Agane and an omnibus edition, The Compleet Molesworth, reprinted by Penguin as Molesworth These are considered absolute classics in the UK along with gems such as 1066 and all that. Whether they're intelligible in the US is another matter; but I didn't think Monty Python would be, and I was wrong about that... The reviews here are sparse, I see, so look at Amazon UK for a fuller perspective. I see also that the second-hand price of some of the individual volumes is becoming ludicrous, so best just to go straight for the Penguin. The original "Compleet Molesworth" was actually missing a small part of "Back in the Jug Agane" (which is why I bought the individual volumes), but I don't know about the Penguin. I hope perhaps this has provided some context; now you can look at Amazon UK :-) P.S. If you can't remember Britain in the 50's and need a cultural glossary, see my So You'd Like To... Guide.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Swift has Nothing on Willans & Searle is Icing on the Cake.,
By MOLLOY (Fl Gold Coast) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Molesworth (Penguin Modern Classics) (Paperback)
That the quadriga (how pretentious!) produced by the author and artist is screamingly funny is to vastly under-rate the brilliance of their oeuvre (oh jeeze...).
Eternal truths about children and the deformative pressures of society upon them are illuminated with style that cuts, bludgeons, and pierces yet produces only tears of laughter. The books were published in the 1950's and Ronald Searle (b 1920 -) shot to the top decades ago. Geoffry Willans (1911 - 1958) wrote at least a half dozen more books after MOLESWORTH. I read these when in my early twenties; now in my 60s, I can't wait to read them again. As another reviewer pointed out; these are children's books for adults and adult's books for children but are much, much more than children's books!
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This author/illustrator combo deserves far more fame,
By
This review is from: Molesworth (Penguin Modern Classics) (Paperback)
I read "How to be Topp" years ago when I was a schoolkid (USA publics...). Everyone should read these-- and I mean your kids, while they are in elementary or Jr High school.
"Molesworth 2 start blubbing because he have not got the reel RollsRoyce he wanted.." plus the picture of the trap for St. Nick: priceless.
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