Decline and Fall

While studying at Oxford University, Paul Pennyfeather is set on by members of the Bollinger Club, who set on him, remove his clothes and force him to run naked around the university campus. Expelled for indecent behaviour, he looks for a job as a schoolmaster and finds one at Llanabba Castle School, Wales, where he is one of a bunch of misfits who probably drifted into teaching by accident just as he did. The students are irritating, and some of the staff are very odd. Among them are the usually drunk, accident-prone Captain Grimes, and the likeable yet ever-dithering Prendergast, who once made the mistake of removing his wig in full view of the boys on his first day at the place.