Jennings Follows A Clue

The rain hadn't abated all day. I was trapped indoors and didn’t know what to do with myself. “I ought to write a blog to pass the time”, I thought to myself. I didn’t know what to write about though. Looking on my bookshelves for inspiration my eyes alighted on Jennings Follows A Clue by Anthony Buckeridge. It is a first edition complete with dust jacket and published in 1951. One of my favourite books. Why is it so special? Well, my sister Margaret gave it to me as a birthday present on my 50^th birthday in 2001. It was published the year I was born in 1951 and Margaret knew that when I was a kid I was addicted to the Jennings books. A few weeks ago some Facebook friends were nominating each other to name their favourite books. I was itching to be nominated so that I could show off my book knowledge, but nobody nominated me, much to my chagrin. I would certainly have included a Jennings book along with Black Beauty, The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer and Treasure Island as my favourite childhood books.

Jennings Follows A Clue was the second in the series of Jennings books. The first was Jennings Goes To School published in 1950. The books follow the adventures of Jennings and his short-sighted friend Darbishire at Linbury Court School. All the characters are only known by their surnames, as was the custom at British boy’s schools. There was a whole supporting cast of minor characters such as Temple, Venables, Binns, Blotwell, Atkinson and Bromwich (Major). The teachers were gruff Mr Wilkins, kindly Mr Carter and the headmaster known as the ‘Arch Beako’. Then there was Matron and many other characters. Flicking through the book this afternoon all the schoolboy slang terms came back to me. For example, if you made a mistake it was a ‘bish’, anything unpleasant was ‘ozard’. If Mr Wilkins was angry he was ozard, if he was really angry he was ‘ozard squared’ and if he was absolutely furious he was ‘ozard cubed’. Jennings was always getting Darbishire into all sorts of scrapes, such as when they found an old wheel with 2000BC written on it. Thinking they had found an ancient artefact they pushed it back to school only to find that BC stood for Borough Council.

Anthony Buckeridge died in 2004 aged 92, but his books were enjoyed by thousands of children and he educated them at the same time. I found out one very interesting fact today. When I looked on Wikipedia for info about Jennings I discovered that the Jennings books were serialised on Children’s Hour on BBC radio in 1958. Jennings was played by a child actor called John Mitchell who became famous in the 60’s as Mitch Mitchell drummer of the Jimi Hendrix Experience. You learn something new every day!

Mitch Mitchell as Jennings.

The Mystery Of The House Without Windows.

I have always been interested in stories about people who disappeared without trace. Five years ago, I wrote a piece about Connie Converse who is regarded as the first ever female singer-songwriter of the modern era. In 1974 she packed her belongings into her Volkswagen car and drove away, never to be seen again. I called that story How Sad, How Lovely after the title of her album. You can read that story below if you want.

Recently I stumbled across the story of another talented person who also disappeared in mysterious circumstances, the writer Barbara Newhall Follett. She was born in 1914 in New Hampshire USA. Her father was Wilson Follett who was a noted writer and teacher. Her mother was a writer of children’s stories. She was a precocious child who started writing poetry at the age of four and even invented her own language which she called Farksoo. She also had a huge interest in nature and the outdoors. At age eight she began work on her first novel which became The House Without Windows. The first manuscript which she presented to her mother was destroyed in a house fire. She painstakingly rewrote it and expanded it and with the help of her father the book was published in 1927 when she was only 12 years old. She was hailed as a child genius and the book received rave reviews from people such as Eleanor Farjeon who wrote the song Morning Has Broken. She was interviewed on the radio and asked to review other books. Her future seemed assured.

Barbara also had a great interest in the sea and sailing. In order to write about it she wanted to experience it for herself. Her parents allowed her to join the crew of a schooner as a ‘cabin boy’ on a voyage to Nova Scotia. She was only thirteen years of age. Her book based on that voyage The Voyage Of The Norman D was published in 1928 also to critical acclaim. Sadly, that year her life turned upside down. Her father abandoned his wife and children and went off with another woman. She found that experience quite devastating. The great depression began, and she was reduced to doing secretarial work to help support her mother and siblings. She did write other manuscripts, but they remained unpublished during her lifetime.

In 1931 she met a man called Nickerson Rogers. The following year they walked along the Appalachian Trail and then sailed to Spain and spent time walking through Europe. I think if she had been born 30 years later then she would have been described as having a hippy existence. They returned to USA and settled in Brookline Massachusetts and married in 1934. Sadly, it was not a happy marriage. Barbara became depressed and convinced that her husband was being unfaithful to her. According to her husband Barbara left the house on December 7^th, 1939. She had $30 in her pocket which was about $500 in today's money. At only 25 years old she was never seen again. Her husband did not inform the police for two weeks. Four months later he requested that a missing persons bulletin be issued. It was in the name Barbara Rogers, so nobody knew it was the famous writer who had disappeared until 1966. Her mother became suspicious when she discovered what little effort Nickerson had made to find his wife and accused him of having something to hide. Sadly, she went to her grave never knowing what fate had befallen her daughter. No body was ever found nor any evidence suggesting foul play.

I decided that I ought to see if I could find a rare book by Barbara Newhall Follett, So I googled ‘Barbara Newhall Follett Signed Copy’. I didn’t find a book signed by her, but I was amazed to find that a new illustrated edition of The House Without Windows had been published in the UK only last year 2019 and copies were  available signed by the illustrator Jackie Morris. My copy arrived last Saturday. It is a very attractive book and there is an introduction by Jackie Morris. Unfortunately for me, unlike the album by Connie Converse which I really enjoyed listening to, this book is not my thing at all. It is like a children’s fairy tale. It is about this girl called Eepersip who runs away from home to live in in the woods and eventually turns into a wood nymph. It is a children’s book meant for children. I expect I will resell it when I get back into my book dealing again. Nevertheless, I found the story of Barbara Newhall Follett quite fascinating. It is a shame that her disappearance wasn’t investigated more thoroughly at the time. In this modern age with all the advances with DNA I wonder if the mystery could still be solved when some shallow grave is found and reveals its dark secrets.