Humphrey Carpenter Books In Order

Mr Majeika Books In Order

  1. Mr. Majeika (1984)
  2. Mr. Majeika and The School Trip (1999)
  3. Mr. Majeika and the Lost Spell Book (2003)
  4. Mr. Majeika and the Ghost Train (1994)
  5. Mr. Majeika and the Dinner Lady (1990)
  6. Mr Majeika and the School Caretaker (1996)
  7. Mr Majeika and The Music Teacher (1986)
  8. Mr Majeika and The Haunted Hotel (1987)
  9. Mr. Majeika and the School Book Week (1992)
  10. Mr. Majeika On the Internet (2001)
  11. Mr. Majeika and the School Inspector (1993)
  12. Mr Majeika Joins the Circus (2006)
  13. Mr Majeika and The School Play (1991)
  14. Mr. Majeika Vanishes (1997)
  15. Mr. Majeika’s Postbag (1994)
  16. Mr. Majeika’s Magical T.V.Fun Book (1990)

Mr Majeika’s T. V. Adventures Books In Order

  1. T. V. Adventures of Mr.Majeika (1988)
  2. More T.V. Adventures of Mr.Majeika (1989)
  3. Further T.V. Adventures of Mr.Majeika (1990)

Novels

  1. The Joshers (1977)
  2. The Captain Hook Affair (1979)
  3. Wellington and Boot (1991)
  4. Charlie Crazee’s Teevee (1993)

Picture Books

  1. What Did You Do At School Today? (1992)

Anthologies edited

  1. The Puffin Book of Classic Children’s Stories (1980)

Non fiction

  1. The Envy of the World (1978)
  2. The Inklings (1978)
  3. Jesus (1980)
  4. W. H. Auden (1981)
  5. The Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature (1984)
  6. Secret Gardens (1985)
  7. O.U.D.S . (1985)
  8. Founders of Faith (1986)
  9. J.R.R. Tolkien (1987)
  10. Geniuses Together (1987)
  11. Serious Character (1988)
  12. The Brideshead Generation (1988)
  13. Benjamin Britten (1992)
  14. Makers of Christianity (1995)
  15. Robert Runcie (1996)
  16. More Shakespeare Without the Boring Bits (1997)
  17. The Oxford Children’s A to Z of Music (1997)
  18. Dennis Potter (1998)
  19. That Was Satire, That Was (2000)
  20. That Was Satire (2000)
  21. A Great, Silly Grin (2002)
  22. The Angry Young Men (2002)
  23. Spike Milligan: The Biography (2003)
  24. The Seven Lives of John Murray (2008)

Mr Majeika Book Covers

Mr Majeika’s T. V. Adventures Book Covers

Novels Book Covers

Picture Books Book Covers

Anthologies edited Book Covers

Non fiction Book Covers

Humphrey Carpenter Books Overview

Mr. Majeika

As a rule, magic carpets don’t turn up in schools, but this is exactly what happens when Class Three’s new teacher flies in through the classroom window and lands on the floor with a bump. Mr Majeika can behave just like any ordinary teacher if he wants to, but something has to be done about Hamish Bigmore, the class nuisance, and so he uses a little magic to turn him into a frog. And to everyone’s delight it looks as if Hamish will have to remain a frog because Mr Majeika can’t remember the spell to turn him back again! With Mr Majeika in charge, suddenly life at school become much more exciting there’s even a magic carpet ride to Buckingham Palace!

Mr. Majeika and The School Trip

More amazing adventures with Mr. Majeika, the ex-wizard, turned teacher, and his class at St. Barty’s School. This time there’s a trip down a magic river, a battle to save St. Barty’s from the wrecking ball, and work experience for Class Three.

Mr. Majeika and the Ghost Train

‘Do be careful, Mr. Majeika, there might be real ghosts in there.’ When Class Three and Mr. Majeika get on board a ghost train, they are in for a surprise. Real ghosts appear and the wicked Wilhemina Worlock isn’t far away. But Jody comes to the rescue with a dragon to help her!

Mr. Majeika and the Dinner Lady

‘Sometimes,’ whispered Jody. ‘I think school dinners would be alright if it wasn’t for her.’ Mrs. Chipchase, the nasty dinner lady, makes lunch hour at St. Barty’s really unpleasant. That is, for everyone but her ‘favourite friend’, Hamish Bigmore. Up to his usual tricks, Hamish is allowed to eat chocolate instead of ghastly school dinners! Mr. Majeika decides it’s time to sort out the menu…

Mr Majeika and the School Caretaker

When old Mr Jenks retires, St Barty’s School advertises for a new caretaker. Unfortunately there’s only one applicant Hamish Bigmore’s Uncle Wilf who is just as rude and bad tempered as Hamish. When Mr Majeika is hurt in an accident it becomes clear that Uncle Wilf is working for the wickedest of witches, Wilhelmina Warlock! It’s up to Mr Majeika to work his magic and put things right again.

Mr Majeika and The Music Teacher

There’s a new music teacher starting at St Barty’s and it’s William Warlock Mr Majeika’s sworn enemy. As usual Majeika’s antics save the day. By the author of ‘Mr Majeika and the Dinner Ladies’, ‘Mr Majeika and the School Play’ and ‘Mr Majeika and the School Inspector’.

Mr Majeika and The Haunted Hotel

‘Oh, don’t be cowards,’ said Jody. ‘I’m sure it’s perfectly safe.’ Mysteriously stranded in the fog at night, Mr. Majeika and Class Three find themselves in a creepy hotel near Hadrian’s Wall, where some very spooky things start to happen. Strange lights, ghostly sounds and vanishing people…

Mr. Majeika and the School Book Week

‘Oh dear,’ said Mr. Majeika, ‘I seem to have made the spell too strong.’ Class Three has fun during Book Week, when famous storybook characters suddenly appear! But there’s trouble ahead with Wilhemina Worlock, the witch at the school’s Olympic Sports Day…
Will Mr. Majeika manage to magic up a solution?

Mr. Majeika On the Internet

Class Three has got a new computer and while exploring it, Mr. Majeika manages to get the whole class trapped in the school website. Many adventures follow and Class Three meet bizarre characters before they can get out.

Mr. Majeika and the School Inspector

‘Use of magic by teacher strictly forbidden.’ Poor Mr. Majeika goes to the bottom of the class when the school inspector comes to call. Things don’t get any easier when Mr. Majeika turns himself into a lobster by mistake. Class Three somehow has to get Wilhemina Worlock to undo the spell…

Mr Majeika and The School Play

‘I really am quite useless as a wizard.’ But Class Three thinks Mr. Majeika is an excellent wizard, particularly when his spells go wrong! First Hamish Bigmore ends up on TV, then a real giant appears in the school play. And finally, Mr. Majeika gets the whole class lost on a magic carpet! There’s always an adventure with Mr. Majeika around…

Mr. Majeika Vanishes

Class 3 are sure that something is very wrong when Mr Majeika leaves school without saying goodbye. When they find a message from him saying he’s been arrested by the Silly Crime Squad, they are determined to rescue him. To do this they must outwit Hamish Bigmore and Mr Majeika’s old enemy, Wilhelmina Worlock. They succeed and Wilhelmina is punished with a ‘spell’ on earth as a Supply Teacher!

Mr. Majeika’s Postbag

Follow the antics of Mr Majeika as he helps save a family of foxes, narrowly escapes having to marry an ugly mermaid and lends Santa a hand in the festive season. As well as stories, there are jokes, Walpurgian recipes and secret coded messages in Mr Majeika’s postbag.

Wellington and Boot

Moving to Wibberley on the Wold is Keith’s dad’s idea. Keith and his mum are not so sure of the move, especially when they see their small home designed by Crawley Enterprises. Luckily one dusty old theatre has escaped Crawley Enterprise Developments along with its two resident ghosts.

The Puffin Book of Classic Children’s Stories

This anthology introduces children to the children’s classics from ‘Anne of Green Gables’ to a ‘Christmas Carol’, offering them an opportunity to use the extracts as a guide to which classics they would enjoy. The book is organised thematically with an introduction by the editor to each section.

The Envy of the World

the BBC Third Programme, which first went on air on 29th September 1946, became one of the leading cultural and intellectual forces in Britain. Written with unlimited access to the BBC’s archives and letters of such notable figures as Bertrand Russel, Harold Nicholson and Dylan Thomas, and including exerpts from outstanding talks, documentaries and drama, this book charts the history of this very Briish institution.

The Inklings

During the 1930s at Oxford, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams met regularly to discuss philosophy and read aloud from their works. Carpenter’s account brings to life those warm and enchanting evenings where their imaginations ran wild. 9 cassettes.

W. H. Auden

W. H. Auden disapproved of literary biography. Or did he? The truth is far more equivocal than at first seems apparent. There is no denying he delivered himself of such unambiguous pronouncements as ‘Biographies of writers are always superfluous and usually in bad taste; and that he asked for his friends to burn his letters at his death, but, against that, Auden himself often reviewed literary biographies and normally with enthusiasm. Moreover he argued for biographies of writers such as Dryden, Trollope, Wagner and Gerard Manley Hopkins as their lives would tell us something about their art. Humphrey Carpenter himself nicely summarizes Auden’s ambiguity on this question. ‘Here referring to literary biography, as so often in his life, Auden adopted a dogmatic attitude which did not reflect the full range of his opinions, and which he sometimes flatly contradicted.’ Although the biography was not authorized it did receive the co operation of the Auden Estate which gave permission for letters and unpublished works to be quoted. The result is a biography that was widely praised on first publication in 1981 and which continues to hold its own. Now is the obvious time to reissue it with the character of Humphrey Carpenter playing an important role in Alan Bennett’s ‘The Habit of Art’. In his introduction Alan Bennett writes ‘When I started writing the play I made much use of the biographies of both Auden and Britten written by Humphrey Carpenter and both are models of their kind. Indeed I was consulting his books so much that eventually Carpenter found his way into the play.’ ‘Carpenter is a model biographer diligent, unspeculative, sympathetic, and extremely good at finding out what happened when and with whom…
admirably detailed and researched study’ John Bayley, ‘The Listener’. ‘an illuminating book; full of information, unobtrusively affectionate, it describes with unpretentious elegance the curve of a great poet’s life and work’ Frank Kermode, ‘Guardian’. ‘sharpens and usually lights up even the most canvassed parts of the Auden life and myth…
a deeply interesting book about a deeply interesting life’ Roy Fuller, ‘Sunday Times’. ‘…
the story of a remarkable man told by one of the best living biographers’ David Cecil, ‘Book Choice’.

The Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature

Now in new covers, The Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature brings together all aspects of this appealing and wide ranging subject. It’s 2,000 entries range from the early romances and legends enjoyed by children although not composed for them to cartoons, fairy stories, comic strips, radio, and television. It includes works from Britain, the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as works translated into English. The plots of major works are summarized, and full and fascinating details are included about authors, illustrators, fictional characters, genres, and important aspects of children’s play and learning. Remember…
Thomas the Tank Engine The Eagle Emil and the Detectives William The Would be Goods Charlie and the Chocalate Factory The Secret Garden This book is intended for parents, teachers, librarians; general readers with nostalgic interest in the literature of childhood; anyone concerned with children’s educational and imaginative development.

Secret Gardens

Now in paperback a fascinating survey of the literary era that brought us Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Wind in the Willows and Winnie the Pooh that is both a collective biography and a critical work and forces a reconsideration of these childhood classics in a new light.

Founders of Faith

The Buddha, Confucius, Jesus, and Muhammad each founded a system of thought which in its own way has shaped the lives and thinking of countless generations across the world. This unique volume presents four self contained studies of the founders of the world’s greatest religious traditions. Originally written for the Past Masters series, these authoritative studies provide a unique guide to some of the most influential ideas in human history. Each of the contributors explores the distinctive features of the particular religious tradition and reveals why it has had such a profound and lasting influence on the way people think today. Founders of Faith provides new insights into the different ways in which men and women in both the East and West have sought to make sense of some of the most intractable problems of human existence.

J.R.R. Tolkien

The only authorised biography, and the only one written by an author who actually met J.R.R. Tolkien, with a redesigned cover to match the distinctive paperback editions of The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales. In the 25 years since Tolkien’s death in September 1973, millions have read The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion and become fascinated about the very private man behind the books. Born in Bloemfontein in January 1892, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was orphaned in childhood, brought up in near poverty and almost thwarted in adolescent romance. He served in the First World War, surviving the Battle of the Somme, where he lost some of his closest friends, and returned to academic life, achieving high repute as a scholar and university teacher, eventually becoming Merton Professor of English at Oxford. Then suddenly his life changed dramatically. One day while marking essay papers he found himself writing ‘In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit’ and worldwide renown awaited him. Humphrey Carpenter was given unrestricted access to all Tolkien’s papers, and interviewed his friends and family. From these sources he follows the long and painful process of creation that produced The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion and offers a wealth of information about the life and work of the twentieth century’s most cherished author.

Geniuses Together

In Humphrey Carpenter’s own words, ‘This is the story of the longest ever literary party, which went on in Montparnasse, on the Left Bank, throughout the 1920s.’ ‘This book’, to continue to quote Carpenter himself, ‘is chiefly a collage of Left Bank expatriate life as it was experienced by the Hemingway generation ‘The Lost Generation’, as Gertrude Stein named it in a famous remark to Hemingway.’ There are brief portraits of Gertrude Stein, Natalie Clifford Barney and Sylvia Beach, who moved to Paris before the First World War and provided vital introductions for the exiles of the 1920s. The main narrative, however, concerns the years 1921 to 1928 because these saw the arrival and departure of Hemingway and most of his Paris associates. ‘He is a compelling guide, catching the kind of idiosyncratic detail or incident that holds the readers’ attention and maintains a cracking pace. Anyone wanting an introduction to the constellation of talent that made the Left Bank in Paris during the Twenties a second Greenwich Village would find this a useful and inspiring book.’ Times Educational Supplement

The Brideshead Generation

The Brideshead Generation has both style and substance, and is above all an enjoyable companion. It has a wildly amusing cast, here controlled by a skilful director.’ Evening Standard ‘Jovial and entertaining, full of the sort of stories that your friends will tell you if you don’t read it before them.’ Independent ‘Carpenter has read widely and has collected an enormous fund of entertaining stories and facts.’ Sunday Telegraph ‘Hauntingly sad and wonderfully funny and by far the best thing Humphrey Carpenter has done.’ Fiona MacCarthy, The Times

Benjamin Britten

A biography of Benjamin Britten which presents a panorama of British musical life since the 1920s.

Robert Runcie

This is a biography of the 102nd Archbishop of Canterbury, including Runcie’s opinions on major incidents of his tenure and presents a portrait of the man himself and the Church of England today.

More Shakespeare Without the Boring Bits

A very different look at some of Shakespeare’s stories told from a minor character’s point of view. A humorous look at ‘Romeo and Juliet’, ‘A Midsummer’s Night Dream’, ‘Julius Caesar’, ‘Macbeth’, ‘Henry V’ and others.

Dennis Potter

Based on interviews with associates and on access to personal archives, including many unused television and film scripts, this is a biography of the playwright, Dennis Potter, author of controversial television series such as ‘Pennies from Heaven’, ‘The Singing Detective’ and ‘Blackeyes’.

That Was Satire, That Was

At the 1960 Edinburgh Festival, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller and Alan Bennett changed the face of British comedy with their satire. This study examines the political and social conditions which inspired them.

A Great, Silly Grin

A vibrant history of the British satire explosion of the early 1960s from Private Eye and Beyond the Fringe to That Was the Week That Was and its lasting influence on comedy. Humphrey Carpenter’s A Great, Silly Grin is both a thoughtful history and a great deal of fun. The British satire boom of the early 1960s created a motherlode of styles and material for generations of bright comedians and social critics on both sides of the Atlantic and set a standard for clever humor that still shapes comedy and commentary in America today. Carpenter’s history of that formative era revisits the 1960 Edinburgh Festival, when a staggeringly inspired satirical review startled a public steeped in the polite, bland banality of the 1950s; recalls the appearance in London coffee bars of a scruffy yellow pamphlet calling itself Private Eye, and looks back at the groundbreaking BBC television program That Was the Week That Was. Exclusive interviews with the people involved are woven together with a wealth of comic material, photographs most from private collections and never before published and other contemporary material to bring the era vividly to life. Carpenter also as*sess the satirical movement’s impact in America. A Great, Silly Grin is a feast of nostalgia for those who remember its signature comedians fondly, and an insightful look back at a high water mark for satire in the English speaking world.

Spike Milligan: The Biography

Spike Milligan was one of Britain’s best loved comics as well as one of the most original. In this reas*sessment of Spike’s life and career, biographer Humphrey Carpenter has through copious research and access to many of those closest to the great man unearthed a character who could be as difficult and contradictory as he was generous and talented. The creator of The Goons was to influence a whole generation of comics, yet was never to feel fully valued. His periods of depression were matched by periods of high creativity there were poems, novels, volumes of biography, as well as a television series and a one man show as Spike searched for his best means of expression. There was also, as revealed here, his inveterate womanising. Married three times and with four children to whom he was devoted, two illegitimate children were to remain barely acknowledged.

The Seven Lives of John Murray

From the burning of Byron’s memoirs, Jane Austen’s clipped businesslike manner, and the lucrative controversy caused by the publication of Darwins Origin of Species, through to the discovery of the new young poet John Betjeman, the name John Murray has for more than 200 years been synonymous with challenging, intelligent, and progressive publishing. From its birth in 1768, when the first John Murray of Edinburgh came down to London, each of its seven leaders has made his own contribution to the dissemination of literature and the understanding of the world. One became Byron’s publisher and confidante; another began the revolutionary series of Murray handbooks which transformed world travel in the early years of the railways; a third broke controversial new ground with the publication of Queen Victoria’s letters. So the tradition progressed to the end of the 20th century, and a list of literary giants including Patrick Leigh Fermor, Osbert Lancaster, Francoise Sagan, and Poet Laureate, John Betjeman. Written in Carpenter’s rollicking and iconoclastic style, it is an affectionate and vibrant account of the longest surviving publishing house in the world.

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