This week I am returning to second in a series of books I read at boarding school as a young boy which really connected with me the and indeed even now as that adult little boy.
The second story in this series came out in 1951 where Jennings feels inspired to take up the career as a detective with Darbishire as his assistant, trouble needless to say is just around the corner.
The two boys firstly detect the lights being on in the sanitarium when nobody is supposed to be in there which is the catalyst for them investigating it and the laundry room before noticing the school sports cups, to which competitions are to be held soon have disappeared!
Jennings and Darbishire see a man they believe to be a piano tuner leave the building with them and follow him, breaking school rules into the village going into a silvermith and jewellers oblivious to this being his occupation and that he was to engrave them for the school by permission!
In the meantime all this detective stuff is becoming something of a distraction not just to Jennings and Darbishire but within their form leading to a number of mishaps not least being caught having defaced a textbook and not paying proper attention in class which results, as it did for many of our generation, in a lecture and a caning from the Head.
While exploring the sanitarium they get caught by a mysterious person who locks them in a room and after escaping, investigate laundry as they lose a clue to only end up being driven away as the school sports is taking place. In the end they found out who really stole the cups in time for presenting them.
To me these two boys sum up just how boyhood was at the time as we often made more of things than perhaps we should of and got carried away with it!
The story remains an absolute riot.
One thing that I do have to say is like many of books I read at the time, it could only exist ina pre-internet and smartphone world.
My own much treasured edition is the 1967 Collins hardback which keeps this dust jacket which captures the feel of the boys at prep school well with their uniforms.
I wrote a short while ago about some of the books I read as a child and upon re-reading almost by magic my mind starts slipping back to what this time in the past meant for me.
Part of it meant getting ones equipment and uniform ready for a school day with a mad dash to the stores at the weekend at home if anything needed replacing and this leads really on to this which I do so miss all of that and one of things I did was read books.
Anthony Buckerridge's creation Jennings and his side kick, Darbishire was the main boys own series I read as to a very large extent however what I liked about the series was they did feature memorable characters in situations I could easily relate to as that school boy.
This was the first published story although Jennings was introduced in nineteen forty-eight on the BBC Children's Hour program, garnering a following.
In the first story we are introduced to the two new boys of Linbury Court School for boys, Jennings and Darbishire, their initial meeting with Mr. Carter just seeing a very average boy in his suit and short pants but it is not long before her realizes his well meant but impetuous nature coupled with an overdeveloped sense of initiative soon leads trouble dispite his more erudite mild mannered companion attempts at moderating him as they both start to learn the ropes in their first term.
My copy is a nineteen sixty-two Collins hardback where I'm sure the one I had at school would of been from the mid seventies edition
