Billy Bunter

William George Bunter is a fictional schoolboy created by Charles Hamilton using the pen name Frank Richards. He features in stories set at Greyfriars School, a fictional English public school in Kent, originally published in the boys' weekly story paper The Magnet from 1908 to 1940. The character has appeared in novels, on television, in stage plays and in comic strips. He is in the Lower Fourth form of Greyfriars School, known as the Remove, whose members are 14 to 15 years of age. Time is frozen in the Greyfriars stories: although the reader sees the passing of the seasons, the characters' ages do not change and they remain in the same year groups. Originally a minor character, Bunter's role was expanded over the years with his antics being heavily used in the stories for comic relief and to advance the plots. Bunter is portrayed as greedy, self-indulgent, lazy, deceitful, pompous, and conceited. He is also depicted as frequently unaware of his own shortcomings and as imagining himself to be handsome, talented, and aristocratic. At the same time, the stories occasionally present him as courageous and generous, particularly in his concern for his mother. His optimism, dishonesty, and unsuccessful attempts to conceal his actions are recurring sources of comedy in the stories.