From one source of irrepressible laughter in childhood to another, from William to Billy Bunter. They are very different characters, the substance and the style of the books that feature them are very different, but to me they were in their different ways equally hilarious.
![](https://rajiva2lakmahalcolombo.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/frank-richards.jpg)
![](https://rajiva2lakmahalcolombo.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/bunter-the-racketeer.jpg)
The plot of some William stories came close to genius to my mind, and the images they conjured up were fantastic, which was not the case with Bunter. But I loved the repetitiveness of Bunter’s exploits, on which however subtle changes were rung, and also the creation of schooldays of long ago, unashamedly fantastic, though I do recall in some books Frank Richards introducing shadows that affected his usually so cheery Famous Five.
Bunter came in hardback, as did William, though sometime in the sixties both appeared in paperback. The William paperbacks seemed to me slighter than the hardbacks, not least because they generally had fewer stories, culled from different books. The Bunter papersbacks were also slighter, and were not based on the hardbacks but reproduced shorter stories that had first featured in the magazines in which Bunter was initially introduced to the world.
There were four of these, and I thought I had acquired all four when they came out, in 1965, though I can only see three of them on my shelves. Two of these I had reread in relatively recent years, recalling the plot as I read, and though they were fun I did not think they came up to the level of the weightier hardbacks.
Bunter the Racketeer, which I finally took up again in the fallow New Year period, I could not recollect at all. It had a very slight plot, or rather two plots, both involving a character who does not I believe appear elsewhere. This is Sir Hilton Popper, a local landowner, who is a governor of the school. He claims ownership of an island in the river that runs by his property, and though it is widely believed that his claim is unwarranted, the Head of Greyfriars has put the island out of bounds to avoid any trouble.
The book also gives a major role to Horace Coker of the Fifth, a blunderbuss who is convinced he is correct about everything. He finds Bunter on the bank opposite the island, keen to join the Famous Five who had planned to picnic there, and gives him a lift across to make clear his contempt for Sir Hilton’s claims.
But the friends are not there, having been wary of the owner who had been lurking thereabouts, and Bunter has to spend the night alone on the island. Or not entirely, for a dismissed manservant has stolen Sir Hilton’s silver deposits it there so that he is empty-handed when he gets home, knowing for he overheard them on the other bank that Sir Hilton was going to call the police to ask them to search him.
Bunter is rescued the next day but no one believes his story of the burglar. And Coker, having been roundly scolded by his form-master for having put Bunter on the island, decides to affirm his position by going there himself that afternoon.PostBlock
![](https://rajiva2lakmahalcolombo.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/frank-richards.jpg)
![](https://rajiva2lakmahalcolombo.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/bunter-the-racketeer.jpg)
The plot of some William stories came close to genius to my mind, and the images they conjured up were fantastic, which was not the case with Bunter. But I loved the repetitiveness of Bunter’s exploits, on which however subtle changes were rung, and also the creation of schooldays of long ago, unashamedly fantastic, though I do recall in some books Frank Richards introducing shadows that affected his usually so cheery Famous Five.
Bunter came in hardback, as did William, though sometime in the sixties both appeared in paperback. The William paperbacks seemed to me slighter than the hardbacks, not least because they generally had fewer stories, culled from different books. The Bunter papersbacks were also slighter, and were not based on the hardbacks but reproduced shorter stories that had first featured in the magazines in which Bunter was initially introduced to the world.
There were four of these, and I thought I had acquired all four when they came out, in 1965, though I can only see three of them on my shelves. Two of these I had reread in relatively recent years, recalling the plot as I read, and though they were fun I did not think they came up to the level of the weightier hardbacks.
Bunter the Racketeer, which I finally took up again in the fallow New Year period, I could not recollect at all. It had a very slight plot, or rather two plots, both involving a character who does not I believe appear elsewhere. This is Sir Hilton Popper, a local landowner, who is a governor of the school. He claims ownership of an island in the river that runs by his property, and though it is widely believed that his claim is unwarranted, the Head of Greyfriars has put the island out of bounds to avoid any trouble.
The book also gives a major role to Horace Coker of the Fifth, a blunderbuss who is convinced he is correct about everything. He finds Bunter on the bank opposite the island, keen to join the Famous Five who had planned to picnic there, and gives him a lift across to make clear his contempt for Sir Hilton’s claims.
But the friends are not there, having been wary of the owner who had been lurking thereabouts, and Bunter has to spend the night alone on the island. Or not entirely, for a dismissed manservant has stolen Sir Hilton’s silver deposits it there so that he is empty-handed when he gets home, knowing for he overheard them on the other bank that Sir Hilton was going to call the police to ask them to search him.
Bunter is rescued the next day but no one believes his story of the burglar. And Coker, having been roundly scolded by his form-master for having put Bunter on the island, decides to affirm his position by going there himself that afternoon.