Basil Fotherington-Tomas is a classic fictional character in a series of books by

Geoffrey Willans Herbert Geoffrey Willans, RNVR, (4 February 1911 – 6 August 1958), an English writer and journalist, is best known as the creator of Nigel Molesworth, the "goriller of 3B" and "curse of St. Custard's", as in the four books with illustration ...

and

Ronald Searle Ronald William Fordham Searle (3 March 1920 – 30 December 2011) was an English artist and satirical cartoonist, comics artist, sculptor, medal designer and illustrator. He is perhaps best remembered as the creator of St Trinian's School and f ...

featuring the archetypal English prep school boy of the 1950s,

Nigel Molesworth Nigel Molesworth is a fictional character, the supposed author of a series of books about life in an English prep school named St Custard's. The books were written by Geoffrey Willans, with cartoon illustrations by Ronald Searle. The Moleswo ...

, who is the supposed author. Nigel is a schoolboy at St. Custard's, a fictional (and terrible) prep school located in a carefully unspecified part of England. While Nigel epitomises the worthy inky and earthy school boy, Fotherington-Tomas is the opposite, being an effete and loathed sissy. Fotherington-Tomas is reported to bear a certain resemblance to

Little Lord Fauntleroy ''Little Lord Fauntleroy'' is a children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was published as a serial in ''St. Nicholas Magazine'' from November 1885 to October 1886, then as a book by Charles Scribner's Sons, Scribner's (the publisher of ...

; while he is also a student at St. Custard's, he is regularly dismissed as a being a "gurl" and a sissy by Molesworth, due to his curly blond locks and his questionable tendency to skip around the school saying such things as "hullo clouds, hullo sky". In several footballing scenes in the books, Fotherington-Tomas plays in goal. He is a surprisingly talented

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player.

Other appearances

*Fotherington-Tomas also occasionally appears as a name in ''

Private Eye ''Private Eye'' is a British fortnightly satirical and current affairs (news format), current affairs news magazine, founded in 1961. It is published in London and has been edited by Ian Hislop since 1986. The publication is widely recognised ...

'' magazine, usually as a pupil of the spoof public school St. Cake's. *In '' The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume III: Century'' chapter 2, "Paint it Black", we see Fotherington-Tomas in 1969. He is the

Brian Jones Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones (28 February 1942 – 3 July 1969) was an English musician and founder of the Rolling Stones. Initially a slide guitarist, he went on to sing backing vocals and played a wide variety of instruments on Rolling Stones r ...

of the League universe, and was in a band with

Turner Turner may refer to: People and fictional characters * Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name *One who uses a lathe for tur ...

, the League's

Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English musician. He is known as the lead singer and one of the founder members of The Rolling Stones. Jagger has co-written most of the band's songs with lead guitarist Keith Richards; Jagge ...

. Shortly before being drowned in his own swimming pool by occultists, Basil engages in sexual acts with Wolfe from the film ''

Villain A villain (also known as a " black hat", "bad guy" or "baddy"; The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.126 "baddy (also baddie) noun (pl. -ies) ''informal'' a villain or criminal in a book, film, etc.". the feminine form is villai ...

''. *In the short story collection ''

Back in the USSA ''Back in the USSA'' is a 1997 collection of seven short stories by English writers Eugene Byrne and Kim Newman, which was published by Mark V. Ziesing Books. The title is a reference to the song "Back in the U.S.S.R." by The Beatles. The storie ...

'' by

Kim Newman Kim James Newman (born 31 July 1959) is an English journalist, film critic, and fiction writer. He is interested in film history and horror fiction – both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's ''Dracula'' at the age of eleven & ...

and

Eugene Byrne Eugene Byrne (born 25 February 1959) is an English freelance journalist and fiction writer. His novel ''ThigMOO'', and the story it was based on, were nominated for the BSFA award. His story "HMS Habakkuk" was nominated for a Sidewise Award for Al ...

, he appears in the story "Teddy Bear's Picnic" as the analogue of Colonel Kurtz from the film ''

Apocalypse Now ''Apocalypse Now'' is a 1979 American psychological epic war film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The screenplay, co-written by Coppola, John Milius, and Michael Herr, is loosely inspired by the 1899 novella '' Heart of Darkn ...

''. "Hello clouds, hello sky, hello pile of severed human heads." *Fotherington-Tomas appears in the 1982 ZX Spectrum BASIC manual as an example of a disallowed variable name "because of the hyphen - a space would be fine".

Books featuring Fotherington-Tomas

* ''Down with Skool'' (1953) * ''How to be Topp'' (1954) * ''Whizz for Atomms'' (1956) * ''Back in the Jug Agane'' (1959) * ''The Lost Diaries of Nigel Molesworth'' (2022)

References

Characters in British novels Cultural depictions of Brian Jones {{novel-char-stub