Following the death of Buckeridge's maternal grandfather, the family moved to Welwyn Garden City where his mother worked in promoting the new suburban utopia to Londoners.

After marrying his first wife, Sylvia Brown, he enrolled at University College London where he involved himself in Socialist and anti-war groups (he later became an active member of CND) but did not take a degree after failing Latin.

With a young family to support, Buckeridge found himself teaching in Suffolk and Northamptonshire which provided further experiences to influence his later work.

During World War II Buckeridge was called up as a fireman and wrote several plays for the stage before returning to teaching at St Lawrence College, Ramsgate.

The tales make liberal use of Buckeridge's inventive schoolboy slang ("fossilised fish hooks!

More recently, the first four books were published in an omnibus edition by Prion, The Best of Jennings: Four Utterly Wizard Adventures All Jolly Well Complete and Unabridged (2010).

Buckeridge made no small contribution to postwar British humour, a fact acknowledged by such comedians as Stephen Fry.

Rex Milligan is a fictional character created by Anthony Buckeridge, and is the eponymous schoolboy hero of a series of five books set in the mid 20th century.