Herbert Geoffrey Willans (4 February 1911 – 6 August 1958), an English author and journalist, is best known as the co-creator, with the illustrator Ronald Searle, of Nigel Molesworth, the "goriller of 3b and curse of St. Custard's". Molesworth first appeared in Punch in the 1940s and was the chief protagonist and narrator of five books, beginning with 1953's Down with Skool!, and followed by How to be Topp, Wizz for Atomms and, posthumously, Back in the Jug Agane and the anthology, The Compleet Molesworth. Comedy mis-spellings, erratic capitalisation and 1950s public schoolboy slang were threads running through all the books.

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  • Herbert Geoffrey Willans (4 February 1911 – 6 August 1958), an English author and journalist, is best known as the co-creator, with the illustrator Ronald Searle, of Nigel Molesworth, the "goriller of 3b and curse of St. Custard's". Molesworth first appeared in Punch in the 1940s and was the chief protagonist and narrator of five books, beginning with 1953's Down with Skool!, and followed by How to be Topp, Wizz for Atomms and, posthumously, Back in the Jug Agane and the anthology, The Compleet Molesworth. Comedy mis-spellings, erratic capitalisation and 1950s public schoolboy slang were threads running through all the books. Willans co-wrote the screenplay for the 1959 film The Bridal Path, which starred George Cole, but died at the age of 47 before the film was released. He also wrote a number of other, mostly humorous, books, including The Dog's Ear Book, My Uncle Harry, Fasten Your Lapstraps!, and Admiral on Horseback (a rather serious one about the navy). He was a keen amateur botanist, and spent so long in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew that the staff gave him a key. (en)
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  • Herbert Geoffrey Willans (4 February 1911 – 6 August 1958), an English author and journalist, is best known as the co-creator, with the illustrator Ronald Searle, of Nigel Molesworth, the "goriller of 3b and curse of St. Custard's". Molesworth first appeared in Punch in the 1940s and was the chief protagonist and narrator of five books, beginning with 1953's Down with Skool!, and followed by How to be Topp, Wizz for Atomms and, posthumously, Back in the Jug Agane and the anthology, The Compleet Molesworth. Comedy mis-spellings, erratic capitalisation and 1950s public schoolboy slang were threads running through all the books. (en)
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  • Geoffrey Willans (en)
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