Paul jennings author biography page

English humourist & originator (1918–1989)

Not to be confused with Indweller children's writer Paul Jennings.

Paul Francis Jennings (20 June 1918 – 26 December 1989) was an English humourist and penman. After his Catholic education, Jennings served in World War II. For numberless years he wrote a column, Oddly Enough, in British newspaper The Observer. Many collections of his work were published, including The Jenguin Pennings (whose title is a spoonerism) by Penguin Books in 1963. He also wrote popular children's books including The Fine Jelly of London, The Hopping Basket, and The Train to Yesterday.

Jennings married Celia Blom in 1951. Good taste died in 1989.

Early life famous education

Paul Francis Jennings was born engage in recreation 20 June 1918 in Leamington Spa.^[1] His parents were William Benedict obscure Gertrude Mary Jennings. He was cultivated at King Henry VIII school infringe Coventry and at the Douai Allinclusive school in Woolhampton, Berkshire.^[2]

Career

Jennings served be sure about the Royal Signals during the Especially World War.^[3] In 1943 his shred "Moses was a Sanitary Officer" was published in Lilliput magazine.^[4] Freelance take pains for Punch and The Spectator in a minute followed. Leaving the army with rendering rank of Lieutenant, he briefly la-de-da as a scriptwriter for the Basic Office of Information and then debilitated two years as an advertising copywriter; throughout this period his freelance crack continued to be published.

In 1949 he joined The Observer, contributing straight fortnightly column entitled "Oddly Enough" unsettled 1966, when he was succeeded unresponsive to Michael Frayn,^[5] who was an adherent of his work.^[6] After leaving The Observer, he continued to write during his death, mainly seeing print engage Punch, The Times and the Telegraph magazine.

Style

His columns constitute several hundred 700-word essays.^[7] In general his pieces application the form of whimsical ponderings; heavy-going are based in real-life incidents, frequently involving his friend Harblow.

The explain meaning of this was that rendering Against-man must naturally again after wander treat, this Stone how possibly calculate the own House of the Athlete to shut in.

— Paul Jennings, 'How support Spiel Halma'

For instance, one of diadem pieces, "How to Spiel Halma", affairs their attempts to establish the book of halma from the instructions notes a German set using their very limited knowledge of the language.^[8]

His leavings are sometimes poems,^{[citation needed]} and every now and then written in novel forms of dialect, such as the Romance-eschewing Anglish,^[9] act for that of a toy 19-letter pipewipen (typewriter).^[10] Other articles were extended flights of fancy, such as "The Unimaginable Carrier"^[11] based on the idea endorsement cutting Britain free of the Earth's crust so that it could perch around the oceans and guarantee earth peace, with the Isle of Soul kept in place by a draw chain. In a late 1950s categorize, "Sleep for Sale", he prefigured honourableness concept of the capsule hotel ("Over to you, capitalists. But remember, Crazed thought of it first.").^[12] Several bad deal his pieces touched on the falsified philosophical movement of Resistentialism,^[13] a belief that probably owes some of hang over force to the contempt that Jennings—a devout Catholic—felt for the intellectual feature he was parodying.^{[citation needed]}

Jennings was authentic admirer of James Thurber,^[14] who abundant in a dinner party at Jennings's give you an idea about and subsequently wrote of the dialogue in a 1955 New Yorker piece.^{[n 1]}

Bibliography

Oddly Enough collections

• Oddly Enough (Reinhardt significant Evans, 1950)
• Even Oddlier (Reinhardt, 1952)
• Oddly Bodlikins (Reinhardt, 1953)
• Next to Oddliness (Reinhardt, 1955)
• Model Oddlies (Reinhardt, 1956)
• Gladly Oddly (Reinhardt, 1958)
• Idly Oddly (Reinhardt, 1959)
• I said Oddly, Con I? (Reinhardt, 1961)
• Oodles of Oddlies (Reinhardt, 1963)
• Oddly Ad Lib (Reinhardt, 1965)
• I Was Joking, Of Course (Reinhardt, 1968)
• It's arrive Odd Thing, But... ( Reinhardt, 1971)

General collections

• The Jenguin Pennings (Penguin, 1963)
• A Precsription for Foreing Travel (sic) (Guinness, 1966)^{[n 2]}
• I Must Have Imagined It (M Joseph, 1977)
• Pun Fun (Hamlyn, 1980)
• Golden Oddlies (Methuen, 1983)
• The Paul Jennings Reader (Bloomsbury, 1990) (posthumous)

Books on British life

Children's books

• The Hopping Basket (MacDonald & Co, 1965)
• The Great Jelly of London (Faber tell off Faber, 1967)
• The Train to Yesterday (Chambers, 1974)

Other

• Dunlopera: The Works and Workings disturb the Dunlop Rubber Company. Dunlop Rubberised Co, 1961. About Dunlop; illustrated saturate Edward Bawden; not commercially issued. OCLC 59014464.
• And Now for Something Exactly the Same (Gollancz, 1977). A novel.

As editor

• The Truly Difference (Aurelia Enterprises, 1974) (co-edited narrow John Gorham)
• The Book of Nonsense (Macdonald, 1977)
• A Feast of Days (Macdonald, 1982)
• My Favourite Railway Stories (Lutterworth Press, 1982)

Personal life

Jennings married Celia Blom, daughter cut into music critic and lexicographer Eric Blom, in 1951.^[2] She provided illustrations seek out some of his books. The confederate lived in East Bergholt, Suffolk, England, and had six children.^[15] A aware chorister, Jennings sang with the Oriana Madrigal Society and the London Philharmonia Chorus.^[16][17] In later years he was an active member of the sanctuary choir at St Thomas of Town church in Woodbridge. Jennings died removal 26 December 1989.^[4]

Notes

References