From time to time I exchange e-mails with John Joseph Waddington-Feather - someone who you know well Arthur. John too, as you might expect being a poet, author and playwright, is a staunch supporter of Prut and he recounted the following incident to me only last week. He's given me leave to post his little tale.

"I knew about the Prut diaries. I bet he never knew when he wrote them he'd be posthumously famous. I owe much to his teaching and used to visit him when he was elderly and in a nursing home. Shortly before he died I went to see him just after he'd had a cataract removed. "Ee! It's John Feather!" he exclaimed as I went through the door. "Thank goodness you've come so I can talk about something sensible. This lot here, " he said, pointing at the ring of Alzheimers looking blankly ahead round him, "think that Tennyson is a brand of marmalade." Then he went on, pointing to someone not much older than myself but looking into oblivion like the rest. "And I used to teach him as a lad at school. He weren't much better then!"

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1945 - 50

Current location (optional) Norfolk

It was a long shot but I searched the internet to see if there was any reference to Kenneth Preston.All I could find was in the obituries section of Trinity College Oxford where it records that a Kenneth Huson Preston died in 1995.Is this one and the same? The date fits as I seem to recall that he and the unforgettable Ben Tren died within a short time of each other around that time.If so I am surprised that on one ever picked up on his unusual middle name.Is there anyone who can give a definitive derivation of "Prut" or is it "Prutt".This has been mentioned before but nobody seems to know where it came from.The best I have seen is that it is short for "Preston from Utley",but that seems rather contrived.There must still be someone out there who knows or has it been lost in the mists of time?

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1953-1961

Current location (optional) Filey

Although his reputation ran before him, I did have an open mind about Prut when he first entered our classroom. We were 24 lads in 4a. What I eventually found was that the style and content of his English lessons were quite unlike anything that had gone before: 1a:Norman Olive; 2a:Edgar Fenwick; 3a:Mitchell (Limpy Tut).

Previous posters, whose views I respect, refer to Prut's enlightening revelations of the delights of the literature of our native tongue – indisputably one of the finest resources of sentiment, reason and expression anywhere in the world.

But what strategies did he use to break us in to that appreciation?

Who remembers the horrors of “Twentyman”? In our first lesson, Prut dished out a copy per pupil of this textbook that was to straightjacket the expression of our ideas on paper. It did, if you followed the scheme, give you a better grasp of what Wilbur was talking about in Latin – but I don’t think that was Kenny’s purpose.

I’ll never forget the dread of hearing (yet again) his illuminating introduction to a lesson in our mother tongue - “Taik kowt Twentyman” in a light gravelly tone. I have sent to Chris a few pics of the text – which I still have. (http://www.kbgs.com/photos.htm) Can’t remember my motives for nicking it – but it could have been to save another fellow sufferer in the following 3a.

(On July 13th 1950, he wrote in his diary that he had been trying for "the first time in my life to do something with visual education". We never saw any results of this. He didn’t offer any evaluation. The date suggests it was after “O” level was over and he was experimenting with something which didn’t need to be followed through.)

A scanning of the contents of the Twentyman text will reveal the mechanics of the course – for it was mechanical. Great for grasping the mechanics of Cicero, Livy – or even Catullus. I suppose we were pupils in a grammar school. – but it gave not a lot of inspiration for writing freely in our own language – and that’s where the correction burden crept in. Initially, Kenny gave no indication of the consequences of making a spelling mistake and a grammatical error in a sentence with several clauses. We soon discovered that this could result in several pages of corrections if initially you did not pick up every single margin correction he had made.

The outcome was, in order to avoid pages of corrections, you developed a curt, terse style of expression. How many lads left kbgs with a “twentyprut” or “prestyman” style of writing? And did it serve them well. Answers on a postcard, please.

Have a look at examples of your English style. Can you see the influence of “twentyprut”?

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1952-60

Current location (optional) Lincoln

Twentyman is new to me, Terry! Perhaps he introduced it because the contemporaneous 5A to your 4A were (as you have indicated previously from his diary) the worst he had ever had to teach. From what you say, I'm rather glad I escaped it. What did the book purport to teach you and how, precisely, was its wisdom administered?

He probably thought it would be too demanding,Doug.

As I recall, without plumbing its depths, we were expected to learn the definitions of the parts of speech. We had fun with gerunds and participles. We did a lot of clause analysis and he used it to teach the skills of summary and precis. But it was the extracts from literature that we had to precis that were so daunting.....eg Macauley; Gibbon;Poe;Scott and Ford (Gatherings from Spain 1846 ??).Heavy stuff for we lightweights

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1952-60

Current location (optional) Lincoln

...us lightweights???
KP

Tha' clearly needs a dose o' Twentyman, Alan!

Right KBGS-ers. Who's needs to do their corrections? Tel and Doug. Or Prut and Jonah?

Glad to see you're still on the case, Allan.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1952-60

Current location (optional) Lincoln

On further reflection, Allan, I think I detect traces redolent of Twentyprut in some of your postings under this head.
Don't you just hate these "emoticons" - just like little Jimmy Osmonds!!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1952-60

Current location (optional) Lincoln

The only way I can come to terms with your apparent phenomenal memory, Terry, and my pathetic one, is the consoling belief that you must have kept a Prut-like diary!!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1954-59

Current location (optional) Denholme (garethwhittaker99@hotmail.com)

Terry I dont recall a 'Twentyman' but I did do parsing and sentence analysis. I have no doubt that it did eventually influence the way I wrote but my main advantage was realised when I went to hear Enoch Powell speak in Shipley where I found myself muttering, 'Main Clause' 'Adverbial Clause of Time' ' Adjectival Clause' etc as he spoke in that meticulous manner he possessed. What a magnificent and articulate orator he was, whatever your views of his principles may be.

KP was born 8 March 1902 and died 16 August 1995. He was educated at KBGS and Oxford. He joined the staff of KBGS in 1927 after leaving Oxford and teaching briefly at Yeovil School. He retired in 1962. His diaries and other family papers (correspondence, creative writing, biographical notes, school reports, testimonials, certificates etc.) were deposited with West Yorkshire Archives by A. Preston (presumably his son Allan) in 1987. The diaries are marked as "Restricted access": "No publication of diary verbatim extracts until 2040".

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1954-59

Current location (optional) Denholme (garethwhittaker99@hotmail.com)

You're right, they're hateful
And yes, the main cross I have to bear from my KBGS days (ask anyone I've ever worked beside) is a slavish adherence to the teachings of Twentyprut!

from an old posting by me:

"These below are at the library, note especially the papers from Kenneth Preston, English teacher in late 1930s to 1960s. There must be some good stuff in there.

Keighley Public Library: Keighley Boys' Grammar School, miscellaneous records 1931-1947 Keighley Public Library: Keighley Trade and Grammar School, group photograph of pupils 1920-1920
Keighley Public Library: Keighley Grammar School London based "Old Keighlians" Association 1946-1951
Keighley Public Library: Keighley Boys' Grammar School, printed ephemera 1937-1954 Keighley Public Library: Keighley Trade and Grammar School, records 1870-1926
Keighley Public Library: Keighley Boys' Grammar School, papers re dramatic productions by Kenneth Preston, English teacher 1954-1957 Keighley Public Library: The Rev John Waddington Feather, auctioneer, surveyor and valuer, Keighley, family and business papers 1919-1970
Keighley Public Library: Kenneth Preston, family papers 1924-1970"

Among these KP papers in Keighley Library are the following. If anyone is still interested I can get more detail + photos (if allowed).

1. Detailed production notes, photos, press cuttings etc. re Merchant of Venice, April 6/1954; The Miser (Moliere) Feb 12/1957; Twelfth Night Mch 27/1945

2. Programmes for various productions (starring or produced by KP) from 1921-24, 31, 32, 34, 36, 42, 50, 54, 60

3. Pupils essays on "How to keep in good healthy" by Maurice Bartle, Fred Carr, Jack Derrick, and Harry Hall. (Why did he keep just these from the thousands that must have passed through his hands?).

4. Diaries (detailed daily lesson plans/reminders) Sept'63 - May'66

5. Notebook, no date, with hand drawn cartoon of soldier shooing off some kids with caption "Nah then, Alley toot sweet. An' the tooter the sweeter."

6. Detention book (very full!) June/48 - July/58, with details of misdemeanors and comments from heads (NH at first then ARW).

7. Odd copies of "The Keighlian": 22-32, 51, 53, 55, 56, 58. (Is there a full set of these anywhere?). Some things that caught my eye were school rugby team reports (e.g. "Ogden scored a cool try from a scrum..." F Wellock (1956); and a student's report of French trip in 1956 - mention of rough crossing, pillow fights, seven course meal, free time in Paris and on Metro, Fontainbleau, all brought back memories and the smell of the bowls of hot chocolate and fresh bread for petit déjeuner.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1954-59

Current location (optional) Denholme (garethwhittaker99@hotmail.com)

"If anyone is still interested I can get more detail + photos (if allowed)".
Sure thing, Gareth. A generous offer. As you are on site, as it were, you can do the rest of us and on-line posterity a good service.
As for what you extract and report, I'd be happy to leave that to your discretion and judgment.
Obviously, accounts that cover the period that most contributors to this site were at KBGS would be most relevant - but I think the man ipse is of interest to many.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1952-60

Current location (optional) Lincoln

I penned the following observations last year based on my brief sight of Prut's diaries. I held them back until we had seen more of Alec's researches in the Bradford archives. His unfortunate illness meant I put them on hold - but here they are for what they are worth.

--I heard about Prut very very early in my time at kbgs because I walked to school on my first days with John Turner who was in 4A and enduring his first dose of Prut’s individual didactic strategies. John Henry Turner’s exceptional performances as fullback in the 1st XV whilst yet in 5A did nothing to enhance his status with Prut. whose diary reveals that he was a Blackburn Rovers supporter who felt it necessary in one entry to deride Hind’s injunction to the school not to watch soccer in the hols. John was always saying, “Wait till you get Prut!!”

I spent some time looking at his diaries for some of the years that I was in school.

School apart, he was a stalwart of his church in Utley – his Sunday entries showed he had the Anglican calendar off pat but wasn’t averse to recording critical views on service and sermon.

He was a TocH member and regular attender who was annoyed by the fickle attendance of some of his fellows.

He and his wife were workhouse visitors.

His politics were quite Right – and he was dismissive of unions – even of a colleague taking a day off to attend a teacher conference.

He seem to hanker after his Oxford days – and regretted that he had not subsequently made as much of them as others (of his contemporaries?). He remarked that another does forge ahead and like many another was a standing reproach to himself – especially as they each had the same Oxford seconds (degrees not duelling)!.

He was 54 when I got Prut in 1956. In my reckoning that is when most teachers, in daily contact with strenuous adolescents, are past their shelf-life – however good and talented they may have been earlier. Several of his diary entries indicated that he was finding the job strenuous.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1952-60

Current location (optional) Lincoln

I am surprised to learn he was a football supporter Terry.I remember him telling us that one Saturday he had come back from Bradford on the bus and he was very scathing about the mentality of the thousands watching football when he passed Valley Parade.Perhaps it would have been different if it had been Ewood Park.What connection did he have with Blackburn?

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1954-1961

Current location (optional) Filey