Billy Bunter
William George Bunter is a fictional schoolboy created by Charles Hamilton using the pen name Frank Richards. He features in stories set at Greyfriars School, a fictional English public school in Kent, originally published in the boys' weekly story paper The Magnet from 1908 to 1940. The character has appeared in novels, on television, in stage plays and in comic strips.
He is in the Lower Fourth form of Greyfriars School, known as the Remove, whose members are 14 to 15 years of age. Time is frozen in the Greyfriars stories: although the reader sees the passing of the seasons, the characters' ages do not change and they remain in the same year groups. Originally a minor character, Bunter's role was expanded over the years with his antics being heavily used in the stories for comic relief and to advance the plots.
Bunter's defining characteristics are his naive greed, self-indulgence, and overweight appearance. He is in many respects an obnoxious anti-hero. Besides his gluttony, he is obtuse, lazy, racist, nosy, deceitful, pompous, and conceited, but he is blissfully unaware of his defects. In his own mind, he is a handsome, talented, and naturally aristocratic young man surrounded by uncouth "beasts". His vices are offset by several redeeming features, including a sporadic but genuine courage in aid of others; his ability to be generous during his rare occasions of prosperity; and above all his very real love and concern for his mother. All these, along with Bunter's irrepressible optimism, and his comically transparent untruthfulness and inept attempts to conceal his antics from his schoolmasters and schoolfellows, combine to make the character highly entertaining, though hardly sympathetic.
Origins
Charles Hamilton invented the character for an unpublished story in the late 1890s. He claimed Bunter was derived from three persons: a corpulent editor, a short-sighted relative, and another relative who was perpetually trying to raise a loan.The identity of the fat editor is unclear: various sources suggest either Lewis Ross Higgins, editor of a number of comic papers and who is described as resembling the author G. K. Chesterton; or Percy Griffith, the original editor of The Magnet. The short-sighted relative was Hamilton's younger sister Una, who had suffered poor sight since childhood, and who had been wont to "peer at him somewhat like an Owl"; while the other relative was his older brother Alex, who was described as "generally anxious to borrow a pound or two" on the strength of the anticipated arrival of a cheque that never materialised.
''Magnet'' stories
Billy Bunter featured in 1,670 of the 1,683 issues of The Magnet published during the 32-year period from 1908 to 1940. He was introduced in Magnet No. 1 "The Making of Harry Wharton" as a minor character, but developed into one of the principal characters of the stories as author Charles Hamilton realised his comic potential.George Orwell described him as "a real creation. His tight trousers against which boots and canes are constantly thudding, his astuteness in search of food, his postal order which never turns up, have made him famous wherever the Union Jack waves."
In addition to stories set at Greyfriars School, he featured in many travel series, with trips to China, India, Egypt, Brazil, Hollywood and the South Seas.
Appearance
In his first appearance, Billy Bunter was introduced thus:Bunter's big round spectacles and rolling gait earned him the nickname the "Fat Owl of the Remove".
In the early stories, both Bunter and classmate Johnny Bull were described as "stout" in appearance; and it was Magnet illustrator C. H. Chapman who first put Bunter into checked-pattern trousers to distinguish the two characters. With the passage of time, the illustrations showed Bunter's circumference ever more pronounced, while Johnny Bull became indistinguishable from the other schoolboys.
A list of the members of the Remove form was published in Magnet No. 1659 "Billy Bunter's Bargain", and provided the boys' ages, heights, and weights. Billy Bunter's age is given as 15 years 1 month; his height as ; and his weight as.
Character
On many levels, Bunter is deeply unattractive, amply displaying most of the seven deadly sins: pride, wrath, envy, sloth and, most especially, greed and gluttony. Bunter is also nosy, deceitful and obtuse. However these traits are softened by his cheery optimism, his comically transparent untruthfulness and his reliable ineptitude when attempting to conceal his antics from his schoolfellows and schoolmasters.From the very first Magnet story, Bunter suffers an ongoing shortage of cash and is forever attempting to borrow money from his schoolfellows, explaining that he is imminently expecting a postal money order from one of his "titled relations". Over the course of stories spanning several decades, Bunter's celebrated postal order almost never materialises; and the subject becomes a long-running cause of railery in the Greyfriars Remove. Even so, Bunter is a skilful and persistent sponger and succeeds in extracting countless loans from his schoolfellows. Wealthier schoolboys such as Lord Mauleverer frequently part with a few shillings to be rid of Bunter; but even the notoriously tight-fisted American junior Fisher T. Fish is once persuaded to loan him cash.
Bunter's morals are peculiarly his own. He has every intention of repaying his debts, but they end up lingering for months or years. He is obsessed with food – the sweeter and stickier, the better – and he compulsively helps himself to his schoolfellows' sweets, cakes and hampers, for which he earns countless kickings. But despite his complete lack of scruples in such matters, Bunter is otherwise as honest as any other Greyfriars schoolboy. He would never dream of stealing money or valuables.
In the early stories, Bunter was associated with his stammering stock phrase: "I'm s-sincerely sorry". As his character developed, the stammer disappeared, and his stock phrases became his greeting "I say, you fellows!", the reproachful "Oh really, Wharton!", the anguished exclamation "Yaroooh!" and the distinctive giggle "He, he, he!"
Although Bunter has a keen sense of his own importance, this is rarely shared by anyone else. A notable exception occurs in a 1932 story, during an election for a new Remove Form Captain. The support of the form divides equally between two candidates, leaving Bunter with the casting vote, which is keenly solicited by both camps. Bunter becomes the centre of attention, which he exploits to the full. His view of the two candidates illustrates his priorities:
In the classroom, Bunter's erudition is slight to non-existent. His extreme laziness and ineptitude is the despair of his Form master, Mr Quelch.
Bunter's personal habits are lazy and slovenly. He is always the last to rise in the morning and always chooses to remain in bed a few extra minutes instead of washing. His handkerchief is permanently filthy, and his waistcoat usually displays remains of his breakfast.
A running theme at the beginning of each holiday season is Bunter's persistent attempts to avoid going home and instead to gatecrash the holidays of his schoolfellows, and their generally unsuccessful attempts to avoid Bunter's company.
He has two talents: for cooking, and an uncanny ability to imitate voices. This talent was developed in the early Magnet stories, commencing with Magnet No. 32 "The Greyfriars Ventriloquist". In a series of stories in which Bunter unsuccessfully attempts, in turn, a physical exercise regime, hypnotism, and mind reading, a visiting ventriloquism show inspires him to believe himself a born ventriloquist. "More like a born idiot", comments Bob Cherry – but Bunter perseveres and eventually masters the art. It is a talent unappreciated by his schoolfellows, since he generally uses it for mischief, or to get himself out of trouble.
Among Bunter's few virtues is an occasional tendency to display courage for the sake of others, despite his extreme terror on such occasions. This characteristic was first seen in Magnet No. 364 "Surprising the School" when he saved his schoolmaster's niece, Cora Quelch, from an angry bull, and was afterwards repeated many times. Unfortunately, Bunter's vanity frequently leads him to spoil matters by boasting and exaggerating afterwards. Oddly enough, he also displays generosity on the rare occasions when he is in possession of food or cash.
Billy Bunter's main redeeming feature is his very genuine love and concern for his mother. This is seen in several stories, usually involving his mother falling ill, which draws out Bunter's unselfish side.
Bunter as a plot driver
For the first fifteen years of the Magnet stories, Bunter was one of the crowd. From the mid-1920s, as Hamilton increasingly developed Bunter's comic potential, he also began to use his antics to initiate and drive forward the plots.Conspiratorial conversations or gossip would be overheard by Bunter through a keyhole, or from under the seat in a rail compartment while hiding from the ticket inspector, or under a table hiding from some outraged fellow whose food he had purloined. He would invariably gossip about such knowledge. Letters would be purloined by Bunter and not reach the intended recipient. Bunter's ventriloquism skills would provoke conflicts between other characters. Whilst he was usually not the main protagonist, his influence as a comic interlude and a plot driver was felt at every turn.
In the "Secret Seven" series of 1934, the entire plotline is initiated by Bunter's stupidity, which causes a road accident that sends a number of leading characters to the hospital.
Bunter as a principal character
During The Magnet era, Billy Bunter is not yet the permanent principal character he would become in the post-war era. Each principal character would take a leading role in turn. Stronger characters such as Remove Captain Harry Wharton, the hard and rebellious Herbert Vernon-Smith, and Fifth form duffer Horace Coker are frequently given leading roles in their own series; and even lesser characters such as American junior Fisher T. Fish and aspiring actor William Wibley would occasionally be brought to the fore in their own series.Eventually, Bunter took his turn with the rest, in a number of stories that placed him as the lead protagonist. Some notable examples include:
- The "Bunter Court" series from 1925 – by a combination of trickery and co-incidence, Bunter manages to obtain the tenancy of a stately home, Combermere Lodge, and passes it off as Bunter Court. Despite the author's comment that this was one of the most contrived plots he had ever been forced to employ, this series is highly regarded. Remarkably, Billy Bunter succeeds in being entertaining without the reader ever being invited to feel the slightest affection or sympathy for him. After borrowing from his guests to pay the servants' wages, and locking the estate agent, the butler, and others into the cellar to hide his tracks, Bunter finally flees before receiving his just desserts.
- The "Whiffles Circus" series from 1928 – Billy Bunter assumes the identity of Mr Whiffles, the proprietor of a circus, by stealing his clothes, wig and false whiskers, and sustains the impersonation over the course of the storyline when all the circus hands mistake him for the proprietor.
- The "Bunter £100 Boater Hat" series from 1933 – tramp Harold Hinks steals a £100 note belonging to Vernon-Smith's father and hides it under the lining of Bunter's straw hat. However, Bunter is wearing a borrowed hat at the time, leading to Mr Hinks' hapless attempts to recover the banknote by snatching a succession of wrong hats from Bunter's head. Charles Hamilton considered this one of his funniest stories.
- The "Popper Island Rebellion" series from 1934 – Billy Bunter is expelled after being wrongfully accused of drenching Fifth Form master Mr Prout in ink. The Remove rise up in his support and build a fortified camp on Popper Island, which they successfully defend against a number of assaults by the prefects and other seniors.