Geoffrey Willans

Herbert Geoffrey Willans (4 February 1911 – 6 August 1958), an English author and journalist, is best known as the co-creator, with the illustrator Ronald Searle, of Nigel Molesworth, the "goriller of 3b and curse of St. Custard's". Molesworth first appeared in "Punch" in the 1940s and was the chief protagonist and narrator of five books, beginning with 1953's "Down with Skool!", and followed by "How to be Topp", "Wizz for Atomms" and, posthumously, "Back in the Jug Agane" and the anthology, "The Compleet Molesworth". Comedy mis-spellings, erratic capitalisation and 1950s public schoolboy slang were threads running through all the books.

Willans co-wrote the screenplay for the 1959 film "The Bridal Path", which starred George Cole, but died at the age of 47 before the film was released. He also wrote a number of other, mostly humorous, books, including "The Dog's Ear Book" (also with Searle), "My Uncle Harry" (an interesting exploration of the British gentlemen's club), "Fasten Your Lapstraps!" (an equally fascinating account of the early days of intercontinental flight), and "Admiral on Horseback" (a rather serious one about the navy). He was a keen amateur botanist, and spent so long in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew that the staff gave him a key.

Characters and themes

* Nigel Molesworth, the hero and main protagonist
* Molesworth 2, Nigel's bro.
* Molesworth's "grate frend Peason" (presumably Pearson)
* Fotherington-Thomas, who is "uterly wet and a weed", and walks around saying "hullo clouds, hullo sky"
* Grabber Ma (Major), head of school, captane of everything, winner of the Mrs. Joyful Prize for Rafia Work
* the Masters, evil to a man, especially Headmasters who "are always very ferce and keep thousands of KANES chiz* moan drone"
* the Wizzo company, makers of various objects of schoolboy desire such as the Wizzo Spaceship
* various characters from contemporary culture such as The Mekon and his Treens, from Dan Dare
* school food, including prunes and "the piece of cod which passeth understanding"

*a chiz is a swiz or swindle as any fule kno.

Bibliography

Molesworth

*"Down with Skool! A Guide to School Life for Tiny Pupils and their Parents" (1953)
*"How to be Topp: A Guide to Sukcess for Tiny Pupils, Including All There is to Kno about Space" (1954)
*"Wizz for Atomms: A Guide to Survival in the 20th Century for Fellow Pupils, their Doting Maters, Pompous Paters and Any Others who are Interested" (1956)
**Published in the U.S. as "Molesworth's Guide to the Atommic Age"
*"Back in the Jug Agane" (1959)
*"The Compleet Molesworth" (1958)
**"Molesworth" (2000 Penguin reprint), ISBN 0-14-118600-3

Other titles

*"Shallow Dive" (1934)
*"Romantic Manner" (1936)
*"One Eye on the Clock" (1943)
*"Admiral on Horseback" (1954)
*"The Wit of Winston Churchill" (1954), with Charles Roetter
*"Fasten Your Lapstraps! A Guide for All Those who Wing the World in Super-comfort and Super-luxury in Super-aeroplanes" (1955)
*"Crisis Cottage" (1956)
*"My Uncle Harry" (1957)
*"The Whistling Arrow" (1957)
*"Peter Ustinov" (1957)
*"The Dog's Ear Book" (1958)