h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Not THE Frank Richards, surely???!!
[A very popular childrens' author in his day, who wrote hundreds of stories which have now been deemed Politically Incorrect and consigned to an "auto-da-fé" fate. The central character was a greedy, overweight little schoolboy named Billy Bunter]

Round about the same time - mid-80s, I should think - a large number of other popular childrens' authors suffered the same fate, largely due to overreaction from bleeding heart liberals & trendies who saw sexism/ageism/racism/God-alone-knows-how-many-other -isms in what seemed at the time like about 99% of all literature written exclusively for the child market during the earlier part of the 20th century. Since 'classics' written prior to 1900 were only very rarely seen on public library shelves anyway, this had the immediate effect of reducing books available in the Childrens' Section of any given UK Public Library to cartoon-level PAP more suited to comic mags than 'real' literature . . . People wonder why kids nowadays can neither spell nor write correctly
I should have thought it self evident, and inevitable!

Rant over. Perhaps I should take a few and and maybe I'll vent my feelings in a Guide article once I've simmered down from to again .....

Goodness! That was rather emphatic, wasn't it? strange, I have never herd of the man, and I do spend a good deal of time reading childrens stories, mostly outloud to children but also for fun. I wonder if there is a signifegent difrence in the range of childrens books avalible between the UK and the USA? I have never felt that there was a great lack of good books out there when story time came around. What age range did he write for?

Sorry if my reaction to a 'touched nerve' frightened a few people! Childrens' literature is a subject about which I feel fiercely protective, having seen standards drop alarmingly over the years!
I mean, how can any Examining Board expect to be taken seriously when they recommend a cartoon strip, complete with speech bubbles filled with contemporary language, as the approved version of text to be used for GCSE Shakespeare classes!???

Frank Richards wrote the Bunter series aimed at an almost exclusively Boy Reader market, I suspect age range 11 - 14 or so, the central characters never aged or moved on to the 'next' school year - very much in the same style as the "Jennings & Derbyshire" characters invented at about the same time by Anthony Buckeridge [or should that have been Duckeridge???] Can't remember - a virtual for anyone who can put me right on that!

I feel inspired to put together an Entry for the Guide on this subject, about which I feel quite strongly .
Must have a few and to calm me down
[Well, it IS St. Patrick's Night tonight ... what's YOUR excuse?]

i hope you do do it. nope, i am a purely fictional character, sorry

cartoon!!! of Shakespeare!!! that is an outrage!!!!!
I hate it when people try to adapt great literature for the "average" reader. It only encourages stupidity and destroys the cultural perception of these books. it makes me mad.

I would call a cartoon of Shakespeare not an outrage but bizarre and unworkable. And surely translating into modern English defeats the point of choosing a great writer, unless the translator is one of equal stature.

I fully agree with both above points, but try telling the Exam Board Adjudicators . . .
*stalks off in high dudgeon, tail slashing*

hmm...

sorry to say that i cannot seem to dredge up any feeling regarding this topic, good or bad.

s off to find something to do or someone to ace

Having said that, a Neil Gaiman adaption of a Shakespeare play would be very interesting...

hi bob...
is spike still around?