Writing Lines

George Gordon Wentworth (1946-2011) lived a humdrum life. He was a barely adequate teacher in a fairly world-renowned independent school in Kent and kept a copious diary of his quotidian existence. Most of what he recorded was dross. However, amongst all the utterly uninteresting tailings of his life there were some nuggets and grains to catch the attention. The precious incidents worth recording all reflect the fact that Wentworth was, for the most part, an unwitting fool whose antics and pratfalls made him a major figure of fun. In this book his editor has panned out twenty six episodes which, taken together, give us what is the best of Wentworth: pure comedy gold. From losing all the pupils in his charge on a school trip to being arrested on suspicion of terrorism; from waking up in bed between the married couple the morning after their wedding to destroying a ski-run; from appearing full-frontal naked in a sheep-farmers gazette to triggering an air-sea rescue; Wentworth was, blinkered and befuddled, the subject of these and of so many more unlikely but highly amusing events.

Buy and read this book and you will find that laughter, like life, is cheap.