The Swan Song of A.J. Wentworth

H.F. Ellis

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Paperback

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English

Farrago
14 November 2019

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945); Classic fiction (pre c 1945); Historical fiction; Teaching staff; Independent schools, private education

Series: The Wentworth Papers

The last of the humorous fictional memoirs of a hapless assistant schoolmaster.

It is to be A.J. Wentworth's final appearance on the scholastic scene. Once more he dons his cap and gown - or, to be more precise, Rawlinson's cap and gown - and returns to Burgrove for just one more time.

His final term includes a brief but broadening visit to the United States, in addition to the usual intellectual cut and thrust of the classroom. Whether he's causing a stir on Fifth Avenue, or merely 'trying to knock a bit of sense into a bunch of thick-headed boys,' A.J. Wentworth fumbles, blusters and generally carries on.

A comic study in blinkered English manners, the Wentworth Papers will delight fans of P.G. Wodehouse or Grossmiths' Mr Pooter.

First introduced to readers in the pages ofPunchmagazine, it was later dramatized for both BBC Radio and ITV drama.

By: H.F. Ellis
Imprint: Farrago
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm,
ISBN: 9781788421850
ISBN 10: 178842185X
Series: The Wentworth Papers
Pages: 147
Publication Date: 14 November 2019
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Humphry Francis Elliswas born in 1907 in Lincolnshire, and educated at Tonbridge and Magdalen College, Oxford. Following a year as assistant master at Marlborough school he began to write forPunchmagazine.In 1949 Ellis becamePunch's Literary and Deputy Editor, a post which he held until 1953. It was during this period that he developed the character of A. J. Wentworth, inspired by his experience as a schoolmaster.Punchcontinued to publish Ellis's work, though from 1954 he found a more lucrative market inThe New Yorker,where the Wentworth stories proved very popular.

Reviews for The Swan Song of A.J. Wentworth

'A splendid comic hero ... cannot fail to engage the sympathy of everyone who has ever sat in a classroom either as master or pupil ... Few books have made me laugh out loud quite so often.' Evening Standard 'I was often helpless with laughter. Not a book to be read in public.' The Oldie 'A truly comic invention.' The Guardian 'Masterly caricature.' Times Literary Supplement 'Wentworth turns out to be the hero of a work certain to be pigeon-holed as a minor classic by which people usually mean a classic more readable than the major kind ... a man Mr Pooter would regard with awe but nevertheless recognise as a brother.' Spectator 'A book of such hilarious nature that I had to give up reading it in public.' New Statesman 'One of the funniest books ever.' Sunday Express