Down With Skool! Trivia Quiz

Answer: St Custards

According to Molesworth, St Custard's "hav a very interesting history if you are interested in hist which few boys are. It was built by a madman in 1836 and he made a few improvements before he was put in the bin".

Answer: Nigel

Molesworth describes himself as the "gorila of 3B", by which one assumes he means "guerrilla" rather than "gorilla" - although judging by his hairstyle, he may mean the latter after all.

Answer: False

The headmaster of the school is named GRIMES - Molesworth always writes it in capital letters - and he runs the establishment with a rod of iron. Wackford Squeers is of course the headmaster of the equally appalling Dotheboys Hall in Charles Dickens's "Nicholas Nickleby".

Answer: The mad maths master

Apart from the headmaster, Sigismund the mad maths master is the only regular member of staff to be featured by name, although the school dog is known to be called Wandsworth. Matron is described as "looking like a gunman's moll in a gangster picture". No specific cook is ever featured, although presumably someone is responsible for the copious supply of prunes and "sossages" which seem to form the staple diet of the pupils.

Answer: Peason

Although Molesworth describes Peason as his "grate friend", he often makes rude comments about his appearance, of which the following is just one example: "His mummy call him "darling" and kiss his ickle-pritty face. The old gurl must be blind. Or bats. Or both."

Answer: Hullo clouds, hullo sky

The blond, curly-haired Fotherington-Tomas is described by Molesworth as "uterly wet and a sissy", which seems like a fair comment. He is never happier than when skipping or "playing with gurls chiz chiz chiz".

Answer: The Mrs Joyful Prize for Rafia Work

Grabber is also "captin of games martial of the squash courts custodian of shooting and garter principal of the natural history museum". It is suggested by Molesworth that Grabber has achieved these not through his own abilities, but as a result of his wealthy parents' financial generosity towards the school.

Answer: Fairy Bells

Molesworth 2's playing of "Fairy Bells" is a recurring feature of the books, although he never seems to get any better. As Molesworth puts it in "Whizz for Atomms": "Nothing can stop him the whole skool will rock and plaster drop from the ceiling, chandeliers will shake and light bulbs burst."

Answer: Armand

Armand "wear a striped shirt and a round sissy straw hat like a girly", and Molesworth is disappointed when, during a visit to the zoo, Armand's father does not "thro him to the lions".

Answer: St Trinians

Searle's drawings of the St Trinian's schoolgirls originally appeared as stand-alone cartoons, and he found it a refreshing change in the "Molesworth" books to provide drawings to accompany Geoffrey Willans' existing stories. The first book, "Down With Skool", appeared in 1953, followed by "How to be Topp" (1954), "Whizz for Atomms" (1956) and "Back in the Jug Agane" (1959), the last of these published after Willans's death in 1958.