Alias Frank Richards
Sir : Benny Green (in his review of John Rowe Townsend's Written for Children on 10 July) says: 'I remain as puzzled as ever by the refusal of scholars of children's literature to acknowledge the enormous influence over his readers of Charles Hamilton, alias Frank Richards.'
May I point out that in my own book, The Who's Who of Children's Literature (published by Hugh Evelyn Ltd in 1968 and now something of a standard reference work in the field), I devote a full two-paged biography to Charles Hamilton and his work, plus a portrait and also a full-page frontispiece featuring original drawings of Hamilton's most famous character, Billy Bunter of Greyfriars School, by C. H. Chapman (whose biography is also in the book).
A full-length biography, The World of Frank Richards, by W. 0. G. Lofts and D. Adley, was published by Howard Baker Ltd in 1975. And the monthly amateur magazine Collector's Digest devotes many of its . pages regularly to the works of Hamilton. The several branches of the Old Boys' Book Club also meet monthly to discuss Hamilton's writings, as well as those of many other popular boys' (and girls') authors of past times. My own earlier, privately-published book The Who's Who of Boys' Writers and Illustrators (1964) was additionally devoted to this type of literature.
I fully agree with Mr Green that most books about children's literature almost entirely ignore Charles Hamilton's work and that this is to be deplored—especially in thts, his centenary year. I myself, as a member of the London Old Boys' Book Club's Centenary Committee, devoted a considerable amount of time recently to try to persuade the National Book League to arrange a special Hamilton Centenary exhibition at their London Headquarters, but to no avail. The League pleaded 'lack of funds'—then went ahead to devote their Christmas exhibition this year to the seventy-fifth anniversary of Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit!
Charles Hamilton's schoolboy characters such as Billy Bunter, Harry Wharton and Co, Herbert Vernon-Smith, Horace Coker, Tom Merry, Jimmy Silver, Arthur Augustus D'ArcY and the rest (not forgetting Henry Samuel Quelch, the gimlet-eyed Remove form-master—`a beast, but a just beast') are among the minor immortals of popular English literature and their adventures have been enjoyed by millions over the past sixty years or so. All deserve their due credit.
Brian Doyle
14a Clarendon Drive, London SW15
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