From The Times

February 15, 2008

Billy Bunter fans tuck in to the exploits of comic = schoolboy=20 100 years on

Simon de Bruxelles

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Enthusiasts devoted to the most prolific author in the world will be=20 celebrating this weekend when Billy Bunter, his most famous creation, = turns 100.=20 But few outside of the Bunter fan club will have heard of Charles = Hamilton.

Guinness World Records estimates that Hamilton published about = 75=20 million words in his lifetime. In his prime he was producing up to = 80,000 words=20 a week for boys=E2=80=99 magazines, but he hid his talents behind 28 = pseudonyms.

He created Bunter, the archetypal =E2=80=9CFat Owl of the = Remove=E2=80=9D for Magnet=20 magazine under the name Frank Richards. Today Billy Bunter would = probably be=20 classed as clinically obese rather than fat and his classmates would = find=20 themselves in trouble for mocking him. Despite his large bottom, = self-centred=20 behaviour, undisguised greed and the postal order that never arrives, = Bunter has=20 become such a favourite that he has his own fan club known as the = Friars, after=20 Greyfriars School.

His debut in the first issue of Magneton February 15, 1908, = was=20 followed by 1,683 episodes, of which Richards wrote 1,380. The Magnet = closed in 1940 as a casualty of the war but Bunter did not die with = it. The=20 character went on to appear in books and a popular 1950s television = series, also=20 written by Hamilton.

Under that and other guises Hamilton is believed to be the most = prolific=20 author in the world. Bunter is the one creation for which he is still=20 remembered.

The bespectacled William George Bunter, aged about 15, was the bane = of=20 generations of overweight schoolboys who were inevitably nicknamed = Bunter.

Among those joining the centenary celebrations at a restaurant in = Covent=20 Garden on Saturday will be Peter McCall, the president of the Friars = Club, a=20 thin, retired GP who warns young people today against following the = example of=20 Bunter.

Mr McCall said: =E2=80=9COf the seven deadly sins he is the living = embodiment of=20 pride, envy, avarice, greed, sloth, wrath and gluttony. His name has = endured and=20 is used to describe obesity by people who might have no idea about who = he was.=20 Bunter=E2=80=99s selfish, self-centeredness is a prominent feature = throughout the=20 Greyfriars saga. His needs are paramount and any chap not concerned with = them=20 alone is a selfish rotter.

=E2=80=9CHe is deluded and has a firm belief in his own superiority, = which is=20 reinforced when he speaks with foreigners.=E2=80=9D

Bunter was also a racist, using taunts that are unsuitable for a = family=20 newspaper. Mr McCall said: =E2=80=9CBunter is a lazy coward who thieves, = blackmails, has=20 an aversion to washing, is poor at games and will do anything for his = own ends.=20 Bizarrely the only thing he is really good at is ventriloquism.

=E2=80=9CDespite all these faults he is very popular with = readers.=E2=80=9D

The centenary dinner will be attended by 20 members of the Friars = Club. Brian=20 Simmonds, who is organising the event, said: =E2=80=9CIt is a = traditional English=20 restaurant and I=E2=80=99m sure Billy Bunter would have loved the menu. = We will=20 certainly be tucking into the pies and sweets. We call it food but = Bunter would=20 have called it tuck and wouldn=E2=80=99t have been satisfied until he = had gorged on=20 everything on offer.=E2=80=9D

Busy scribblers

=E2=80=94 Charles Hamilton is estimated to have written up to 80,000 = words a week=20

=E2=80=94 Jos=C3=A9 Carlos Ryoki de Alpoim Inoue, the most prolific = novelist in the world,=20 had 1,058 novels published between 1986 and 1996

=E2=80=94 The work of L Ron Hubbard has been translated into the most = languages =E2=80=93 65=20

=E2=80=94 Mao Tse Tung is the author of the second most popular book, = after the=20 Bible; there were 800 million copies Little Red Book

=E2=80=94 = J=20 K Rowling is the richest author in the world, with an estimated = wealth of=20 =C2=A3500 million

=E2=80=94 The=20 thrillers written by James Patterson have been checked out of British = libraries=20 1.5 million times in 12 months

Source: The Guinness Book of Records, Times database

Have=20 your say

I recall the tv series too. BBC = couldn't do it=20 today without turning Greyfriars into a co-ed, multicultural = paradise

John Ledbury, Kings Lynn, England

I recall scouring used bookstores in = south=20 Calcutta in my early teens in the mid 70s for the rare Bunter chronicle = (mostly=20 Armada books). I was willing to overlook the tiresome caricature of = Hurree=20 Jamset Ram Singh because it was a lot of fun reading about Bunter's=20 misadventures. Happy Birthday!

Sarbajit, Campbell, California, USA

Billy Bunter books were amusing and = we read a=20 few in the seventies at school...but it was not mainstream school = children's=20 books even then and Enid Blyton or Capt WE Johns or Agatha Christie were = far=20 more popular.

Uday, Pune, India

Well said Steve, I totally agree = with you.=20

I was born in 1957 and seem to recall a TV series in glorious = monochrome=20 in the early 60's.

Martin , Bramley, South Yorkshire , England =

Of course Billy Bunter thrived when = Englishmen=20 were free. when we were allowed to make up our own minds and had = confidence in=20 our own country.
Yes his 'sins" judged by our exacting modern = standards are=20 reprehensible, unlike the high moral standards of today's illiterate, = knife=20 wielding foul mouthed youth.

Steve, London, UK

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