...is the fictional rantings of one
Nigel Molesworth, a pupil at an
English public school,
St. Custards, and is, in my opinion, utterly seminal.
The book's genesis began in the 1940's, when Geoffrey Willans, teaching at a public school, began to submit the misspelled diary of Molesworth to the satirical magazine Punch, where it was published as an occasional series. Willans left teaching for full-time career in journalism, and approached Ronald Searle, the creator of the St. Trinians series, with the idea of Searle providing illustrations for Willans' dialogue. "Whizz for Atoms" was published in 1951 by Max Parrish of London.
Characterised by appaling spelling, stylised descriptions of public-school life, Molesworth's daydreaming, and 1950's nuclear optimism, the collaborative tales of "the Goriller of 3B", best-friend Peason, younger sibling Molesworth 2 and those despicable soppy gurls chiz chiz was to span four books:-
Whizz for Atoms
Down with Skool!
How to be Topp
Back in the Jug Agane
Individually hard to come by now, a collection, "The Compleet Molesworth" is still available.
You really should buy it, you know.
O go on, o you mite...