Billy Bunter's Treasure Hunt by Frank Richards.

Published March 1961 by Cassell & Co

Illustrated by C. H. Chapman.

   In the final year of his incredible life, Charles Hamilton would have seen three of his famous Greyfriars books published. In June & October these would have been Billy Bunter at Butlins, & Bunter the Ventriloquist respectively. And, before that, in March, he would have held in his hands a copy of Billy Bunter's Treasure Hunt. Now priced at 9/6d, this was almost double the price of his first Bunter story for Skilton in 1947.

   "Treasure Hunt" is standard Greyfriars fare. Set in the school, it features Bunter, the Famous Five, & Horace Coker.

   The plot construction is fairly original. But, this is a somewhat plodding & predictable yarn, with no outstanding features.

   The story opens on one of those windy days, when sundry articles are blown about in the quad, usually pursued by whooping schoolboys. In the past this might have been a top hat, a letter, or a bank-note. On this occasion it is a postal order. A two-quidder; the property of Horace Coker.

   In class, Bunter displays his customary obtuseness, as Quelch expounds on the dissolution of the monasteries. This lesson should really have been of great interest to every Greyfriars man, dealing, as it did, with Anselmo, Abbot of Greyfriars at the time of Henry V111.

   Apparently, fearing the arrival of Henry's greedy emissaries, Abbot Anselmo had requested his trusted fellow monk, Frater Johannes to hide the Greyfriars treasure.

   Every Greyfriars man is familiar with this legend concerning the famous Greyfriars treasure. It is Billy Bunter who unwittingly stumbles upon a clue.

   Bunter has hidden a purloined cake in a crevice under the ivy in the cloisters wall. Sadly, this action was witnessed by Skinner, who removes the cake.

   Groping for his plunder later, Bunter finds, at the bottom of the crevice, not the missing cake, but an ancient Latin parchment.

   Bunter is not a whale on Latin, but even he can recognize the world for "gold," aurum!

   So begins a period of unaccustomed swotting for Bunter. He enlists the help of the Famous Five. It appears that Frater Johanes hid the gold under a big oak, under __________! The crucial word is missing!

   So, the great hunt begins. Coker soon joins in; convinced his great brain is equal to the problem.

   During the course of this story, Coker gets himself copped on Popper's Island. He incurs Prout's wrath on three occasions, earning himself three Georgics. He, in many ways, redeems what is otherwise a rather dull story.

   This is not one of the better post-war tales. It reads well enough, & it contains a few comic moments. But there is a suggestion of tiredness here, the familiar sparkle is missing.