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Buckeridge, Anthony

the Jennings books, [17] 19

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20080301154120 John Verney, Darbishire and Jennings - Robin Blake on Anthony Buckeridge's Jennings books - Slightly Foxed Issue 17

J. C. T. Jennings and the Problem of Evil

Robin Blake on Anthony Buckeridge, the Jennings books

My first parting of ways came fifty years ago, when I was 8. In September 1957 I was to be sent away to prep school. I could hardly wait. A brand-new brown trunk, inscribed with my name and school number, had been acquired weeks before. My mother had immediately begun assembling, name-tagging and ticking off items from a printed schedule sent to her by Matron, and then laying them neatly in the trunk. Meanwhile, no doubt to prime me, I was given a Jennings book to read, one of a series of prep-school stories written by Anthony Buckeridge. I was soon comprehensively hooked, and began working my way methodically through all eight existing titles, from Jennings Goes to School, first published in 1950, to the latest, Thanks to Jennings. Three days before the start of term, with my trunk packed at last, I was brimming with Jennings-fuelled excitement.

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