Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm
Rediscover Professor Branestawm this Christmas – soon to become a brand new drama on BBC ONE written by Charlie Higson and starring Harry Hill
‘Once you started anything in Professor Branestawm’s house you never knew when it might finish or even if it ever would’
Poor Mrs Flittersnoop! It’s not easy being Professor Branestawm’s housekeeper. People may say he’s a genius, but all his inventions always make life more complicated, alarming and extraordinary than it was before. An innocent bottle of old cough mixture turns out to be an elixir that makes all the waste paper in the bin come to life, the burglar-catcher and the pancake-maker operate just a little too efficiently, and about the spring-cleaning machine, the less said the better. You could write a book about it, but nobody would believe it.
Includes exclusive material: In the Backstory you can find out about accidental inventions that changed our lives and try a few experiments of your own!
Vintage Children’s Classics is a twenty-first century classics list aimed at 8-12 year olds and the adults in their lives. Discover timeless favourites from The Jungle Book and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to modern classics such as The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
Norman Hunter was born in 1899 in Sydenham, London. He was energetic and hard-working: after leaving school he worked as an advertising copywriter, performed as a stage magician and wrote books on many subjects, including advertising, brainteasers and conjuring. And he created Professor Branestawm!
Professor Branestawm was originally created for a children’s series on BBC Radio. He went on to appear in a series of thirteen books written over the next fifty years, from 1933 to 1983. The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm is the first book in the series.
During the Second World War Norman Hunter lived on a boat on the Thames. In 1949 he went to work in South Africa, but returned to England in 1969 and spent the rest of his life living by the Thames in Staines. He died in 1995 aged 95.
When Norman Hunter was asked if Professor Branestawm was based on a real person, he admitted ‘Professor Branestawm jolly well represents me!’