One of my sons recently bought me a copy of 'Austerity Britain 1945-51'by David Kynaston. ('The Sunday Times Bestseller'). Browsing through it I came upon a reference to 'Kenneth Preston...a middle-aged English teacher at Keighley Grammar School and the most conscientious of diarists...'. The author quotes from Kenneth Preston's diary on eight or nine occasions throughout the book.
I never knew the man: Robin Williams had just taken over as Head of English when our cohort arrived in 1962. Older ex-pupils probably wouldn't be surprised by the dislike expressed for the Attlee government in Preston's diary entries. Ditto a comment about 'an insurance man who is making £2000 [in 1948] and he is a man who cannot make his subject agree with his verb'.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1962-69

Current location (optional) Nottingham

... so have the full, unexpurgated Prut diaries been published? Wonder if anyone here gets a mention? Personally I think the Prut diaries are fakes, probably authored by Alan Britten and offered for sale to Axel Springer in Germany before then being purchased at less than the asking price by David Kynaston. Wonder if all the punctuation's correct?

This could be most enlightening. Did Kynaston reveal his sources and where they could be examined? It is not enough for we Old Keighlians who suffered at his bench to be permitted a glimpse or two of K Prut's diaries through the eyes of one Kynaston. Come on, old chap. Spill the beans so the definitive insider biography of Prut can be written. I'm putting my money on Ian Dewhirst.

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

Terry! That should be: "It is not enough for us Old Keighlians...."!!

Thanks, Allan. I am usually case-conscious. Oh the shame. What would Kenny and Wilbur think of me? I suppose by now and at my age the effects of their erosion of my native speak are diminishing. Perhaps I should have gone into insurance.

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

....and what would think of I, to have raised it in the first place...????

I cribbed this from a bloke's blog. No doubt this sin would have earned me a few of Prut's detentions for plagiarism. "Is this really your own work, Marston? Come and tell me about it tonight after school.(Aside - that'll teach the lazy little sod)".......

One of the many diarists on whom Kynaston draws for his remarkable history, Kenneth Preston, writes about stopping in at a second-hand bookshop in the spring of 1947:

Whilst we were having a look round we heard the voices of two women in a really incredible conversation. One yelled out to another, who was evidently looking at some books, "Nah! then, don't buy all e' booiks." The other said "Nay, we don't read much at our 'ouse." The other replied "No! we don't. I've nivver read a book i'my life." The other said "No! I often wish I'd read a bit more. You learn stuff from books, don't you?" It seems incredible that there could be anyone who had never read a book. The woman who said she hadn't, Kath said, would be over fifty. These are the folk who vote!

Preston, a "middle-aged English teacher" at a good (sic!!!)school, reveals his class blinders in the last line, but his earlier surprise isn't that foreign to contemporary discussions of America's reading. And though I know (and, as I noted Friday, ultimately accept) that there are people who never read, I have to admit to sharing some of Preston's shock every time I think about a life without books.

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

Could this have had any effect on his attitude to we (sorry us) and our lack of oxbridge English scholarship?
He established penal levels of grading (he called "marks") and used them to destroy any confidence we may have had in our work succeeding in the GCE.. .....
Duzz'ee seh 'owt abowt this in 'is diries?"

Prut as a teacher was "something else" - not exactly Eddie Cochrane whom he would have debunked (as he did Bill Haley to BC Smith).

Prut raised the threshold of failure so high that his candidates damn near all chucked it in and said: "Sod it, Kenny" , - until they realised that by passing they stuck one up him. - A bit like a Prince Monolulu's tip coming up as Clement Freud's went down.

Di'n't do any good in 't long run.

The exam boards had a secret system of "admission" and Prut and Stoker knew the ropes, So lots of Kegley boys passed and gained entry into "Hiyah" Education - in that they made lots of new friends whom they greeted with friendley "Hiyahs".

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

According to the notes in the back of the book, the diaries are in the Bradford Archives. I am assuming, therefore,that they have not been published.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 55-60

Current location (optional) Harrogate

1st Dec 55 When I get this miserable prize distribution over and Bastow off to Oxford - he goes on Monday next,I shall be able to think about Christmas.........I do not think much of Bastow's chances.He has been a big disappointment to me His great handicap was that he went off to France for a month in the summer for a holiday instead of getting on with a list of reading I had given him to do. .......................................................................... 16th Dec Both Bastow and Dawson have won open Scholarships.Bastow in English at St Johns in English and Dawson in Latin and French at Oriel. It is a real triumph to pull off two open scholars at once in a school such as ours.Of course it will be a long time before we have two such lads as Bastow and Dawson again.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 55-60

Current location (optional) Harrogate

Well, Alec, to be fair to him (and yes, I know that there are many who would not choose to be...!), he was only saying that Bastow had been a disappointment to him - by which, I mean, that he had not seemed to come anywhere near fulfilling his potential, partly because of decamping to France in the summer (the effrontery of it!). Prut was not saying Bastow was not up to it (which, in the end, he clearly proved himself to be AND he got the holiday in France as a bonus!), but he clearly didn't realise just how good his pupil was.

Somewhere, at the back of my mind, I seem to recall that David Bastow (whom I knew slightly, through his younger brother who was in my form) went on to lecture in English at Dundee University. Prut was also wrong about others getting to Oxbridge (or did only Oxford and English count in his blinkered vision?), because only two or three years after, to my knowledge, Jim Brant (from my year) and David Harrison (the year after me) performed the same feat - there were possibly others who have slipped my memory.

Fact is, Prut set standards that might now seem inappropriate to a small-town GS like ours, but in doing so ensured that though we failed to meet them in the Bastow sense, many of us gained enormously, and for life, because he operated in the way he did. I feared him, cursed him, yet have long been grateful to him for giving me what he did. He pitched high. The trouble now seems to be that teachers - because of the many constraints set upon them by people who know sod all about education - pitch far too low, or not at all, so that even total illiterates can come out waving their grade Z certificates.

I hadn't intended to be harsh on the old boy,Doug. It simply occurred to me that his grasp of irony was not the equal of his love of Wordsworth. His opinion of you and I(and the rest) is evidenced in his comments in the diary,which,I am sure he never meant for me to read. Witness:- "The examination authorities have been making enquiries about the compulsory Milton that has always been set in the Highers. I have voted in favour of retaining Milton. If we don't there will be a generation of students growing up who will never know Milton for they certainly will not read him for themselves after they have left school - or they won't if they are the sort I try to teach nowadays"...

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 55-60

Current location (optional) Harrogate

Sad that Prut's feelings for Harry did not marry up to those he had for John. Nevertheless, Prut was right in his assessment (in my case) that if a lad didn't read Milton at school, he wouldn't do so later. And, in relating the following incident, I will no doubt reveal my ignorance and Prut's prescience. A contemporary of mine in LVIA had his first Prut experience while studying Milton's Comus for 'A' level at the feet of the master. In an essay, he penned the words that Comus (?) "had a sexy fling on a grassy bank." This reminds me of the 5th year girl who, asking me about the homework essay I had set, said "How many sides of foolscrap shall I write?"

For me the sad thing about Prut (which was career affecting) was he did not, in his teaching, get the best sequencing of the link between "ends" and "means". His methods were short-termist and, to a degree, self-serving. His diary reveals him as a "Pre-Thatcherite" though he put the fear of purgatory (certainly not God) into us when teaching us about the Pre-Raphaelites. My brief scanning of his diaries, contemporary with his acquaintance with me, did not reveal on his part any lofty aspirations for his charges - more an annoyance at their fallings short. This evidenced itself in his classroom manner, his sarcastic put-downs and his general bearing around school. He was not inspirational - more attritional. Sadly for us, Doug, the "quality" (or lack of it, d'apres Kenny) of your 5A's English caused him to sharpen up his talons on you and subsequently for us, your successors. Although I enjoyed the texts, I hated the context - ie Prut's classroom - and in the 6th dropped Prut's English for Fred's French. So much for the best laid plans.......newly appointed Deputy Head, absentee tutor, Milton the Fox,"took us". The outshot was that I was compelled to take up English again for my higher education degree - after a lapse of 3 years and sorry memories, still with me.

A further reading of his diaries will, no doubt, give a deeper insight into the man and his interests. My perceptions to date are that he worked to bring his charges up to the best standard he had achieved. He did not appear to recognise as worthy any intermediate scholarship stations or their place in the personal make-up of his pupils. There appear to be more negative than positive recordings of standard and performance in his diaries - not just in school but in the wider areas of his interests and commitments - including his, no doubt whimsical, comment on January 2nd 1950 that he was not in the New Year's Honours List.

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

You must admit, he probably had a point about Milton, and Shakespeare, and a host of other writers in English who not only are not read but have never even been heard of by the army of A treble pluses who crowd into our so-called universities nowadays. Prut - of the Leavis generation - clearly had a belief that 'Literature' could somehow 'save' you if you were sufficiently impregnated. In my sixth-form Report book, on one occasion his comment was 'he must learn to love literature'. I think his teaching was something akin to a religious crusade; his diaries seem to be revealing that he saw himself as something of a martyr to the cause, whilst we were the ones who were to be burned at the stake.

He was a bitter man, no doubt - I do seem to recall a rumoured feud between him and Neville Hind, something to do with the appointment of the Deputy Head (maybe Dick Cadman) - anything on that, Alec, in your researches? Despite Prut, though not quite entirely, I think, I personally did eventually get into the literature brigade but only when I came across a man who really did know how to teach, and inspire, at university.

As you told me before, Terry, he certainly had it in for my particular 5A, but I don't think he had been any different in his assessments and thwarted expectations with earlier years than ours. I was particularly friendly with Peter McVeigh and Geoffrey Dove (same group as Ian Dewhurst) when I was in the third and fourth forms and they suffered all, at his hands, that we did. His methods were crude, no doubt, but most of us can spell reasonably well, can use the full range of punctuation marks, write in sentences etc even if these acquisitions are now recognised as unnecessary, indeed as obsolete!

4th Nov 55 Staff meeting this afternoon in which Hind explained how he arrived at the S.R.Allowances.....the whole affair is so complicated that no-one appears to understand it fully.It obviously allows far too much power to the head.He can obviously show gross favouritism,as Hind has done.£300 has been given to games.Swift is to receive £175 per annum extra and Birch £125.There is no allocation for a second English post.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 55-60

Current location (optional) Harrogate

26th Jan 56. Had a staff meeting tonight that lasted until 5-10. The usual soliloquy from Hind on the subject of nothing./........../21st Feb 56 Milton says today that Hind is 58.I never new how old he was.I wonder if he will retire at 60.I hope he does.I shall be glad to see the last of him./...../ 2nd March. I fancy Hind is not the only tyrant having trouble with his staff...../5th March Samuel Peters, our senior physics master,the man who took Wigglesworth's place,when he died,leaves us at the end of this school year.He has been here only a year.He dislikes Hind - who wouldn't?

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 55-60

Current location (optional) Harrogate

And one just for you,Doug :- 15th March. Marking.....5A.They have nearly finished me off.The highest mark is 36%!!! (his exclamation marks, not mine)I have never had a literature paper done by a 5th form as badly as this.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 55-60

Current location (optional) Harrogate

Alec,
You seem to be spending quite some time poring over the Prut Diaries. Thanks for the bits you've shared with us to date. Could we have a daily dose or perhaps a weekly collection? What years do they cover?

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

Current location (optional) Norfolk

Peters did less than a year at the school. He taught me Physics for term 2 of 3 in my third year. I don't think the pupils at KBGS were to his liking. He had an arrogant manner. He introduced himself to a 4th year class as follows, "My name is Peters. I suppose you have heard of a famous person called Peters?" "Aye, Sylvia" came from the depths of the lab. (For the benefit of the youngsters, Jim Peters was the heroic GB marathon runner in the Commonwealth games who collapsed in the last lap in the stadium. Sylvia Peters was a pretty, pretty presenter on BBCTV. Sorry, oldies!!!)He was known as Sylvia from then on.
He moved on quick. Prut suggested he was head-hunted - but that was d'apres Sylvia.
He was succeeded by Sam Riley who taught me for term 3 - and stayed longer although he got no more favourable treatment despite his pedigree? What did Prut say about Sam, Alec?

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

The diary is written on lined foolscap sheets,two lines of script to each line,about 60 lines per side.1956,the year I'm on at the moment,comprises 74 sheets.It is tghe equivalent of reading a 250 page novel for each year. Much of it is made up of the minutiae of life(weather,Church,TocH,the shocking price of coal[7/8d]bicycle problems,radio plays etc.)So you can see the problems I am faced with....I've read about 6 months worth so far but that has taken me about 7 hours.The writing is so small it is not easy to read. The sheet I'm on at the moment is number 1074! I'm only covering the years 55-60 and significant others,but I will look up any other dates you have a mind to. Any juicy tit-bits will be posted.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 55-60

Current location (optional) Harrogate

I ordered 'Austerity Britain 1945-51' to see what all the fuss is about.

Alec - I assume the copious notes you have access to are because you have borrowed the diaries from the Bradford Archives?

No,Chris, not allowed to take them out of the archives. I haved to traipse over to Bradford Library and read them there,so postings will be sporadic to say the least! The book you have ordered isn't very informative regarding Preston's contribution.You may be disappointed

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 55-60

Current location (optional) Harrogate

It's OK I saw that the book got good reviews, and it's the kind of book I enjoy.

The author, David Kynaston, has published another book (November 2nd) entitled "Family Britain, 1951-1957 (Tales of a New Jerusalem)". It is in hardcover. A paper back issued next year. He was interviewed on BBC Today today. Another for your collection, Chris.

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

Like you, Chris, I am enjoying reading "Austerity Britain 1945-51". It fills out a lot of my early recollections of family events and conversations and the childhood memories of happenings you absorb through your pores.

On hearing of the publishing of "Family Britain 1951-57", I did a one-click Amazon purchase yesterday afternoon. I was "amazoned" when the postman delivered it to me today this 11 am !

Written and presented in a similar style and format, Kynaston employs many of the same diary sources as in the earlier volume - with the usual illiberal scattering of quotes from Ken. Kynaston must have spent more time in Bradford Archives than Alec.

Scanning some of the indexed references to Prut's diary, I came across this - "Two sometimes grumpy diarists agreed........." I suppose his being grumpy was not beyond our Ken.

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

I suppose some, reflecting on their days at kbgs, might pronounce the title of this posting as follows - "Kenneth Preston the direst"

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

And they said Oscar Wilde was dead!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 55-60

Current location (optional) Harrogate

As I drove past yesterday I noticed Prut's house was For Sale - any takers? I understand there is a 'state-of-the-art' bicycle included in the price...

23rdMarch56.The staff has been having a sweep to-day on the Grand National,to be run to-morrow.I did not take part......it is really disturbing the amount of gambling that goes on amongst so-called Christian people. .......Braithwaite's wife won the sweep and Bert himself put a £1 bet on and won £15. I suppose that will set him on the downward slope.. 16thMay Thornton,who was in the Sixth last year sets off for Malaya on Monday.He is looking forward to the journey.He is now in the Army Intelligence(Oxymoron? A.J.).....Some of the staff have been much agitated by Hind's quest for Masters to go to Camp.Today he told Davies that he had to go.Davies has said that he will give in his notice before he will be made to go.Hind really is unbearable.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 55-60

Current location (optional) Harrogate

12th June56. The results of the Entrance to grammar schools exam are out to-day.Young Roger Northrop is through as is also young Rannard......-29th JuneHind,to-day,has been busy informing his staff of their timetables for next year and there have been the usual growlings and grumblings.Stockdale,as usual,is full of complaints.He has been "old soldiering" this term and has managed to push his form,the upper Sixth, on to Rannard. Peach is furious because he has not been given any Scripture because,according to Bert,he is in danger of losing his S.R.Allowance.I am afraid I am not up to all the inner workings of Staff politics.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 55-60

Current location (optional) Harrogate

6th July56. The fifth form had their GCE Literature paper today.It was a paper of about average difficulty I should say but I can see 5A making a mess of it.Thompson,in the sixth,from whom I had hoped something appears to have made rather a mess of things. From Heaton I did not hope very much.If Thompson gets no award,as seems likely,I do not know what Hind will do about this open scholarship attempt for which he has made provision in the timetable.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 55-60

Current location (optional) Harrogate

Alec, I wish I lived nearer Bradford.

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

Current location (optional) Lincoln

This is all good stuff, even if a couple of years before my time . Please keep it coming Alec !

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

I am ploughing my way through 'Austerity Britain'. It's very detailed but I find it unstructured. For example, with chapter titles such as 'Glad to sit at home' and 'Aint She lovely' you don't quite know what the point of the chapter is, or how this fits into the sweep of events.

It also feels like you are reading a compendium of diaries. While you do get a feel for ordinary lives of the time, it can be a bit tedious to read that Mrs. Smith went shopping and bought some plums.

2nd Sept 55. The Ulteys, the hairdressing alliance, is running the new baby about in a car this week. I could not help reflecting on the changed conditions. A hair-cut is now 2/-.It is not a question nowadays of a man being content with the standard his trade enjoyed in the past,he is got(sic) to be able to enjoy a standard of living he never enjoyed before.The Ulteys were away to Fountains Abbey yesterday.Apparantly they are having a weeks Holiday.The new privileged classes with a vengence!...

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 55-60

Current location (optional) Harrogate

10th Feb 56. Here is another example of how workpeople get more than they appear to do.Firms are almost compelled to run[subsidised] canteens in order to attract and retain workers. In these days of full employment workers will go where there are canteens...............paid the plumbers bill today for repairing the leak in the cellar.£9-9-9d for a days work - monstrous. 16th Feb. I would have thought the obvious way to stop inflation was to stop the constant rise in wages. Miners have just had a rise of 14/- per week awarded them today.This is going to put 1/- and something on a ton of coal.17th May.Coal is to go up another 6/- per ton.It is just the limit.It is going to be cheaper to use oil.I went into town today and bought three pounds of potatoes for Kath for 1/2d - old potatoes these are!!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 55-60

Current location (optional) Harrogate

The more I hear from this chap, the more he sounds like the marvellous Mr Pooter in the classic "Diary of a Nobody"

Just beat me to the Pooter allusion. I remember Prutt as a fussy little moonfaced sort of bloke. Don't think he ever taught me but his diary revelations confirm what I thought then:
Prutt = prat. Evidently he hated Old Nick, although he had more than a bit in common with him. Old Nick could also be a prat but there was much more to like and respect about him than about Prutt.

Prof. Kynaston's follow-up to "Austerity Britain", "Family Britain", is Book of the Week on Radio 4 this week. No Mr Preston in today's edition. Tomorrow, 09.45?

I heard about Prut very very early in my time at kbgs because I walked the short distance from Eastwood to school on my first days with John Turner who was in 4A and was enduring his first dose of Prut’s particular didactic strategies. John was always saying, “Wait till you get Prut!!”
Subsequently, on reading Prut’s diaries, I think that maybe his dread was that he might become like Pooter.
(“Why should I not publish my diary? I have often seen reminiscences of people I have never even heard of, and I fail to see - because I do not happen to be a ’Somebody’}
Comparing himself with his academic peers, he was disappointed that his “Oxford second” did not result in his forging ahead like the similarly qualified Geoffrey who was a “standing reproach to me". He maintained that Oxford was far from being what it was. He was also concerned that the standard of teaching in schools would go down and down unless something was done.(1950) Maybe he saw himself as the man to do that something. John Turner, missen et al would bear witness to that. It all depends what he meant by something.

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

Current location (optional) Lincoln

He was 54 when I "got Prut" in 1956. In my reckoning that is when most teachers, in daily contact with vigorous adolescents, are getting 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. It was clear that he put in full measure .

January 2nd 1950 he was marking exam papers and commenting that he was not in the New Year’s honours. He came close to admitting that he was a workaholic feeling uneasy unless he had a certain amount of work done each night, confessing he liked to be thorough.

By 1956, he was remarking how he found staff duties onerous; how he felt the strain considerably on his week on duty; how the year ahead would be a grind with only 4 PS periods – and 4x having nearly 40 boys in it.

At 55, he was very glad to reach the weekend “nowadays” and was beginning to describe his preparation and marking as “the old grind”. He wasn’t beyond using the expression “TGIF”.

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

Current location (optional) Lincoln

Good evening,gentlemen - my husband is recovering after a heart attack at the beginning of this week so there may not be any more tit-bits from the diary until the new year. Regards,Sue Jackson(I hope i have done this right)

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 55-60

Current location (optional) Harrogate

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

You did it right, Sue. Hope Alec makes a prompt reoovery and that your Christmas is a happy one. I shared my first inroad into the Prut diaries with that of Alec. Hope he gets back posting soon.

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

Current location (optional) Lincoln

Get well soon Alec.

I was just about to ask you a question (or two), but perhaps Terry or IW know. When did Kenneth Preston join/leave KBGS and what happened to him after KBGS? When did he die and at what age? Also, how did his diaries end up in a library?

He retired in July 1962, there is an excellent photo of him with Watthey in the photos section !
(PS will be in Singapore again in Jan - will let you know exactly when later)

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

I suppose it must be something wrong with me but I liked him!!! He was thorough and he had standards and must have got bitterly frustrated sometimes with teaching the same stuff year after year. I always saw teaching as a task to try the patience of a Syssyphus.
My two treasured memories are the lecture he gave to the whole school the year they performed 'Julius Caesar' and his analysis of Mark Antony's speech ' Friends , Romans......etc'and the comparisons he made between Brutus and some Czech politician of the day.
I am happy to say that I became a devoted reader of Shakespeare, for personal pleasure, after that lecture.( I have also read Paradise Lost without being told to do so!!)
My other memory was his reading of Tam o'Shanter and the echoes that rang around the school when he delivered ' Wow! Tam saw an unco sight.....' that Wow !! would have stopped Rommel.It was my love of that reading that led me to a verse capping on the Isle of Bute that won me four straight malts in a quayside pub one cold winters day.
He also had this rather stupid habit of tearing up old full exercise books for you to answer your weekly test on. One had to draw lines around others work and write answers almost upside down but he always managed to mark it well. Mind you there was a war on!!
Hate him, despise him or just dislike him as you wish. I liked the man and am grateful for his efforts with me and even now recognise the impact he had upon me.

In a twist of fate, of which I am guessing Preston would have appreciated, he has more entries (9) in this definitive history of early post-war Britain than many famous individuals. Even Margaret Thatcher (Roberts) only got five.

Nor, Chris, does KP's fame rest there, apparently. I had a letter from Spike Rannard yesterday. He had read the Kynaston book (which I have not, as yet) but then told me that a certain H. Brown 'had begun to write to the Bradford 'Telegraph & Argus' inviting information about KP from any who knew him. It seems Mr Brown is writing a book on Grammar School Teachers of the 1940s and 1950s. I duly sent him a letter, with a few considered comments, which he said he may use...'

Since no one else has mentioned this latest step towards the canonisation of KP I wonder whether Spike was the only one to spot it - I must ask him how and when. Judging by the way this thread has filled out I guess Mr Brown need hardly look any further for information.

And Arthur, I appreciate your point of view. I, like most of my generation, feared the man and his caustic comments, but at the same time have long recognised that my subsequent career path owed not a little to KP. Yet, from what Alec has reported, he seemed very much at home in the 'age of austerity' and did nothing to make himself liked. Perhaps between your years and mine he had become thoroughly disillusioned, for whatever reasons. Even with his colleagues, Spike tells me, 'he could be quite waspish'.

I must say that being in the B stream I didn't have the "pleasure" of KPs tutoring skills.

Doug is the H Brown you mention, the History Master who lived in Albert Street in the housing on the right and just above the then Albert Street Baptist Church and Sunday School hall ??

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1950/1955

Current location (optional) Keighley

Good to see Asa Briggs also gets a quote in the book. That's two for KBGS!

Derek, is there anybody you don't know? Between you you and Terry comprise a complete 'Who's who'! Don't know the answer to that question but will phone Spike to get whatever details he has. More later.

Doug

Doug. Your reference to the 'age of austerity' reminded me of KP's rather miserly ways referred to in the torn exercise books I mentioned in an earlier post. They wore those batwing gowns that used to billow behind them when they strode the corridors and he had this way of delving into the depths of his and emerging with the smallest stub of chalk you could imagine and pincer it in his fingers and thumb and write on the board. The piece was so small that his fingers smudged what he was writing.
We were doing Silas Marner and there was a reference to that miser cooking a piece of meat and using a piece of string and a key to turn the meat while he was out. KP, to illustrate delved into the folds of his gown and emerged with the piece of string and the key and proceeded to mock up the scene in the classroom. I can remember that bit but nothing else of the book.
By the way I once wrote a golden essay on Grey's Elegy and coined the phrase 'the fickle hand of fate'. It was returned with a P against it and that meant writing three correct versions. Pruts rules!! I didnt know what mistake I had made and he told me I had personified and so I should capitalise. I capitalised the whole phrase and got a sneering 'no no no' he read it out loud and I shamed as every one sniggered and I went back red faced and made further corrections . 3X3 =9. I got those wrong too!! Again the sneering loud 'No No No' and again the offending phrase was read out, louder this time, and I stood there wishing I had never written the flaming words and I got another explanation. We looked at my book and realised the geometrical growth of corrections taking place i.e. 3 X 9 = 27. Austerity and the time factor dominated and he wrote a correct version for me.

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.

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

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

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"

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