Charles Harold St. John Hamilton was an English writer, specialising in writing long-running series of stories for weekly magazines about recurrent casts of characters, his most frequent and famous genre being boys' public school stories, though he also dealt with other genres. He used a variety of pen-names, generally using a different name for each set of characters he wrote about, the most famous being Frank Richards for the Greyfriars School stories . Other important pen-names included Martin Clifford , Owen Conquest and Ralph Redway . He also wrote hundreds of stories under his real name such as the Ken King stories for The Modern Boy.
He is estimated to have written about 100 million words in his lifetime and has featured in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's most prolific author. Vast amounts of his output are available on the Friardale website.
Wikipedia
“The donefulness is terrific.”
Mangled English by Indian prince Hurree Jamset Ram Singh; Billy Bunter Expelled, p. 8 http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=lUEqAQAAIAAJ&q=%22frank+richards%22+%22billy+bunter%22&dq=%22frank+richards%22+%22billy+bunter%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=TlIET7mGBobd8QPCta3FAQ&ved=0CEUQ6AEwAQ
Oxford Companion to Children's Literature: "Charles Hamilton" (pages 235-7)
“I say you fellows, I expect to see fair play.”
Bunter catchphrase
Oxford Companion to Children's Literature: "Billy Bunter" (pages 62-4)
Oxford Companion to Children's Literature: "Charles Hamilton" (pages 235-7)
“A somewhat short junior, with a broad, pleasant face and an enormous pair of spectacles”
The first mention of Bunter
Oxford Companion to Children's Literature: "Billy Bunter" (pages 62-4)
Explaining why he used many different pseudonyms.
Oxford Companion to Children's Literature: "Charles Hamilton" (pages 235-7)
Responding to George Orwell's complaint that Hamilton assumed that foreigners are comic.
Oxford Companion to Children's Literature: "Billy Bunter" (pages 62-4)
“All boys ought to be drownded at birth.”
Gosling, the school porter.
Oxford Companion to Children's Literature: "Billy Bunter" (pages 62-4)
George Orwell, Essay Boys' Weeklies (1940) http://georgeorwellnovels.com/essays/boys-weeklies/
About
