Back to School

Hands up if you have heard of Charles Hamilton, an English author born in 1876.

Here’s a clue.

“Hamilton never married, but some details of one romance are provided in a biography, and another is briefly mentioned in his autobiography. Early in the 20th century he was briefly engaged to a lady called Agnes, and later he formed a brief attachment to an American lady whom he alluded to as Miss New York.

His life interests were writing stories, studying Latin, Greek and modern languages, chess, music, and gambling, especially at Monte Carlo. The Roman poet Horace was a particular favourite. He travelled widely in Europe in his youth, but after 1926 he left England only to visit France. He lived in a small house called Rose Lawn, in Kingsgate, a hamlet in St Peter parish, now part of Broadstairs, Kent, where he was looked after by a housekeeper, Miss Edith Hood. She continued to reside in Rose Lawn following his death.” (Wikipedia)

You probably think you don’t know anything about him or his writing. This is because he seldom, if ever, wrote under his own name using at least twenty-five pen-names including Sir Alan Cobham and Hilda Richards. To digress, I don’t expect to write  or you to read more than three or four hundred words per post. American writer, Charles Bukowski, wrote about 2,000 words a day. When he was told another author wrote 8,000 he replied: “Well, the 6,000 words after the first 2,000 are sure to be shit.”

Here’s a picture clue.

“While Hamilton was reclusive in later years, he conducted a prolific correspondence with his readers. He generally wore a skull cap to conceal his hair loss and sometimes smoked a pipe.” (Wikipedia)

His genre was stories almost always set in boys’ schools, a genre on which as you know PG Wodehouse cut his teeth. Plum’s style matured and blossomed but Hamilton’s output did not change. None of Hamilton’s writing is in print today and is seldom read. Like Enid Blyton and many others he is not woke but you may have read him as a child. His most famous creation is Billy Bunter and Greyfriars School – stories written as Frank Richards. He has featured in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s most prolific author having written about 100 million words; which seems to prove Charles Bukowski’s acerbic comment. More about him here.

(This post is 399 words)