Billy Bunter's Christmas Party by Frank Richards.

Published by Charles Skilton October 1949 (Reprinted 1952 and 1957)

Illustrated by R.J.MacDonald. 

I was fortunate enough to buy a Hamilton signed copy of this book earlier during the year. I have been saving it until Christmas time to read and managed to complete it today.

The basic plot is this; Bunter invites the Famous Five plus Squiff to stay with him and his Uncle Carter at Tankeron Hall for Christmas. The catch is that it is actually a boarding house and Bunter neglects to mention this trifling matter to his guests! Whilst there adventure happens involving ghosts and hidden money. I won’t reveal the actual plot, but it won’t be the slightest surprise to any keen Hamilton fan out there.

I really enjoyed the book. If all the Bunter books were of this standard I would be a happy man. The plot regarding unsuspecting boarders had been used twice before. The first time was in 1925 within the Boys’ Friend Weekly. In issues 1259 to 1267, Tubby Muffin invited Jimmy Silver, the rest of the Fistical Four and Ponsonby and Co., of all people, to his uncle’s yacht. The second time was in 1933 within the pages of the Magnet, 1312 to 1315, that Bunter invited the Famous Five and Coker on yet another water based trip. In my opinion, the best of the three was the Rookwood series. Sadly this is barely known to the modern Hamilton fan, as it is hard to get hold of. It was reprinted in the Popular of 1929, issues 547 to 555, but mysteriously not the Schoolboys’ Own Library.

It was also nice to hear about the Carter branch of the family again.  In 1938, Arthur Carter had plotted against the Owl within the Magnet, 1561 to 1572. Obviously Uncle Cater wasn’t as rich as Bunter hoped if he was now running a hotel!

Hamilton did well to adjust himself to a far smaller medium. It was a struggle at times within this story, as if he had been given a larger canvas, some of his descriptive passages would have benefited greatly. There weren’t too many Classical quotations which he could overuse in later books. He only used the “modern” slang of smudges, smears and suffering cats a few times. Why oh why did he think it necessary to change a winning formula by including them? The inclusion of Squiff is rather a puzzle. The only reason I can think of is to boost sales in Australia. It was his role to be the sage, clear thinking type in the story. This role could easily have gone to Inky, as it was in the Magnet, and given him more to do than just mutter his normal lines. Squiff hadn’t hung around with the Famous Five to this degree since he was temporarily actually one of them, within the Red Magnet period.

 Hamilton achieved a certain degree of atmosphere but in comparison to the classic Christmas Magnet tales of the 20’s and 30’s, and pre 20’s Blue Gem it was only average stuff. All the characters behaved pretty much as they did in the Magnet, which is a good thing. There are a few lovely scenes involving Bessie Bunter. The one with her constantly screaming was very amusing.

I would heartily recommend any Hamilton fan to read this during the Christmas period.

Reviewed by Michael Bailey

9 December 2005