The Swan Song of A.J. Wentworth

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 of Punch magazine, it was later dramatized for both BBC Radio and ITV drama.

Editorial reviews:

‘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