There is also, to a greater extent than in the Blyton school stories, some sense of what is going on in the wider world (such as space travel) and also a sense of the place, the Sussex Downs, where Linbury Court School is located. Diarmid was a prep schoolboy boarding at Linbury Court Preparatory School, where the headmaster was Mr Pemberton-Oakes. And although Jennings is impetuous and sees the world in a very specific way, I still find him endearing and, in his own way, logical. An earnest, cautious and bespectacled young man, he is more fearful of getting into scrapes than his friend, but is generally drawn into Jennings’ schemes with the result that he receives his fair share of trouble. It would hardly be fair, he decided, to let a decent chap like old Darbi snooze away the precious minutes of a red-letter day like this.

Madame Olivera from the Inscrutable East (AKA Miss Tubbs of the Linbury Post Office bacon counter) tells Jennings's fortune and predicts a journey over land and sea, an unexpected legacy and that he will succeed in an ambition close to his heart. When Jennings arrives at Linbury Court Preparatory School as a new boy, he soon discovers how much he has to learn, especially when the other boys seem to be talking in a different language! The humour was unsurpassed in any other children’s books of this kind that I read, and I just adored spending time in the company of Jennings and friends. But it is not long before Jennings becomes a celebrity, following an intrepid escape from the school grounds and a riotous attempt to enliven a fire practice, which leaves Old Wilkie literally climbing the walls! Jennings's resolution to be decent to old people like the masters goes awry when he floods the bathroom with a syphon, impersonates Lady Macbeth sleepwalking, and inadvertently causes a fire drill after lights out.He used to tell his pupils stories about the fictional character Jennings, who was based on an old school chum of his, Diarmid Jennings. The Jennings books obeyed this rule even after the revolution in children’s literature that began in the 60s and is still continuing today. By the seventies his days were numbered, and the last books are, alas, lamentable in their attempts at modernity (notably Jennings at Large, in which eccentric Aunt Angela has been transformed into a social worker, living in a tower block in south London, and Jennings spends much of the book not only away from school but in the company of a girl). I am not sure if boys from nowadays will feel the same as certain things are a bit out of date, there is no mobile or DS in sight, but it is sure funny! Like Blyton’s school stories, the Jennings books are not adventures in the sense of the Famous Five or Adventure series, although very occasionally in both there are adventurous episodes.

His personal experiences as a schoolmaster are featured in his stories, and it just so happens that Linbury Court is fairly similar to Bunter’s Greyfriars School because Buckeridge taught in that sort of school. Jennings then goes to stay with his Aunt Angela in her London flat, where he befriends Emma, a girl who lives in the same block - cue yet more chaos, especially for Aunt Angela and the block's caretaker, Herbert Fagg!Jennings’ world was one I could escape to when my school had been particularly insistent on me behaving like a young lady rather than just a child. Jennings helped get the Fire Brigade in time to put out the fire, but luckily the Head didn't ask any questions. She doesn’t seem to have a sense of humour, but Jennings author Anthony Buckeridge intentionally wrote his school tales as comedy. His nickname is obviously a pun on the nightwatchman's nickname of Old Nightie (a shortening of nightgown). These hilarious books were my personal favourite when I was growing up, although they seemed dated even then.