[Ann Drysdale]

Alas, Nigel - I fear it was Cambridge...

[Nigel Mace]

Thanks Ann - of course it was! Why did my memory trip me on that? Probably just the lazy tendency to see them both as Oxbridge - a kind of community of the resented.

[Brian Allgar]

‘Tom Brown’s Schooldays’ reviewed by Geoffrey Willans

This book is about a skool that the auther call ‘Rugby’. This is a very pore start becos Rugby is not a skool but a roten game, as any fule kno.

The skool bully is called Flashman. He remind me of Grabber, eksept he hav never won the Mrs Joyful prize for rafia-work. Flashman and his frends roast Tom Brown over a fire, which is a wizard weeze. I shall try it on Fotherington-Tomas.

But most of the book is garstly and full of caracters like George Arthur who is a swot and a weed and uterly wet. (The auther do not sa if he hav a face like a squished tomato.) The head beak is portraid as a kindly figure which make the book hihgly unconvinsing. Every chapter begin with some lines of filthy peotry, or even Latin. The boys sa there prayers and do lots of homework. Enuff said!

[John Whitworth]

Now you do Thomas Hughes reviewing Down with Skool. Great stuff!

What's the difference between Cambridge and Oxford? At Cambridge they are cleverer and betray their country.