[This following text serves as an annotation to the author's "Mr Pooter: an Alternative Point of View."]
Curiously enough John Major, widely derided for his pooterishness, came from a not dissimilar background to the Grossmiths; his parents were circus performers. Coincidentally, his brother made garden gnomes —those quintessentially pooterish symbols of suburbia. Gnomes are German by origin; being supernatural and living underground, they were good at answering gardening questions. They were brought to England, to Lamport Hall in Northamptonshire, in 1847. One of the first batch survives and is insured for a million pounds: gnomes are taken very seriously. Nowadays the English ones are cuddly and Disneyesque with white beards, bed caps, big buckled belts over ample middles, often found sitting on mushrooms fishing in pools with rod and line.
Sir John Major was Prime Minister from 1990-97
Last modified 23 August 2006