Book Review: "Molesworth" by Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle

This was a book I picked up to fill in a deal I was getting on a three-for-two online. I’m not going to lie to you - I knew nothing about this book beforehand and only really got to know it once I opened it up. I can say I was pleasantly surprised. A comic critique of mid-century English boarding school culture, it comes with completely misspelled words and crude drawings an captions of many a headmaster. I’m not someone who usually reads books like this and even though it kind of freaked me out when I first opened it, I was pleasantly surprised at the fact that it was genuinely hilarious.

The book is narrated by Nigel Molesworth, a scruffy, grammar-mangling schoolboy at St Custard’s, a fictional prep school. His misspellings, bad grammar, and slang (“as any fule kno”) are deliberate, part of his satirical voice. Through him, the genteel world of English prep schooling is hilariously skewered. Molesworth is both insider and rebel: he knows the routines of school life intimately but constantly exposes their absurdity. If you’ve ever been to a school where there has been numerous nonsensical rules then you can probably relate to Molesworth here. He may be a little kid, but he has a keen sense of observation.

Much of the comedy comes from Molesworth’s account of daily school life. The masters (teachers) are caricatures: sadistic, pompous, or useless. Subjects like Latin, maths, and divinity are depicted as pointless tortures, with endless canings and punishments looming over everything. Yet even as he mocks them, Molesworth unwittingly demonstrates how education shapes him, if only by giving him the tools to complain. I’m not going to lie to you but if I was in this situation as a kid, I’d be complaining too. I don’t even like it when people speak to me let alone try this shite with me.

Molesworth describes the pecking order among boys, from bullies to swots to “weedies.” Games and sports are another arena of humiliation, with rugby, cricket, and football portrayed as brutal rituals in which the weak are trampled. He narrates strategies for survival: alliances, evasions, tricks, with all of this comic bravado. Beneath the humour lies a truthful picture of the cruelty and competitiveness of school culture. I don’t know about you but school was never really somewhere I wanted to be whilst I was there but the older I get, the more I miss the simplicity of it. You go in, you have a terrible time and then you leave. There are probably certain subjects where you excel but I wasn’t particularly great at anything - I find myself as kind of average so I guess that is something. At least I’m not as philosophical as this kid.

The book overflows with memorable supporting characters. Peason, Molesworth’s dim best friend; Fotherington-Thomas, the irritatingly angelic and girlish boy who skips about saying “hullo clouds, hullo sky”; Grabber, the school bully and hero at games; and countless masters, each more incompetent than the last. I’m not going to lie, but nearly everyone can remember someone of this irk from school - whether that be primary or secondary school. Ronald Searle’s spidery, anarchic illustrations bring these grotesques vividly to life, perfectly complementing the text.

One of my favourite things that Molesworth does is he teaches us about the mapping of the school. For example: in “How to be Topp”, Molesworth doles out cynical advice on how to navigate school life. This includes mock-handbooks on dealing with exams, impressing teachers, and bluffing knowledge you don’t have. His guides parody the “improving” literature of the time, with our protagonist presenting himself as a sage who reveals the secret workings of the schoolboy universe. This is probably, in my opinion, the funniest part of the book.

All in all, I was surprised at the fact I even enjoyed this book. I was also surprised I had never heard of it until now. This is probably supporting the fact that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover and possibly, break out of your reading comfort zone if you want to discover more books. Even though this book read more like a cartoon or a comic book, it was still a genuinely smart satirical look at a slowly breaking education system.