This is a biography of Charles Harold St John Hamilton, better known as Frank Richards, who was such a prolific writer that he wrote the equivalent of one thousand novels in his lifetime. Although he produced westerns, romances, marine adventures and detective stories it was his witty school stories and anti-hero comic character, Billy Bunter that became legendary. His school stories were mainly written for the Magnet and Gem, weekly papers that 80 years after their inception are still reprinted and collected because of Frank Richards stories. The author discusses the literary quality and social attitudes of the stories and their resilient appeal, building up a portrait of the author. She has also written a biography of Richmal Crompton - The Women Behind William and Your'e a Brick, Angela with Patricia Craig.