( ''t1 r, .. /oy v~ JII- ( o,-..J• f 4t/,,

?ttJo-LDNGCOMPLETE SEXTON BLAKE TIRILLEA VOL. 41 No. 490 OCTOBER I 987 Page 2

lue cloth, BOUND VOLUMES: LIONS - ! years, in navy-b 1950s, (>Os, gilt let te ring, I 95C'~-60s. Also VICTORS 1950s - f:25; 70s, maroon cloth, antique finish, as new: 60s - £22; 70s - £16. J and '.2 - MODERN BOY, new bindings, ! years Vols £50 eac h. 1960s and ROVER, HOTSPUR , GOOFY AND PLUTO 70s. 1883-84 Nos. I - 3£1. BOYS WORLD VOL. VI. bound out intere st to cr icket ers , contains large pull Of great G.f. plate with fa mous English Cricketer s, W.G. Grace, is also another Grace and other s in colour - 1880. There s, and many coloured plate of famous crjcket ing guest fi ne serials - £42. FRIENDS, Large stock of ot her very ea rly volumes, BOYS clear . BOYS HERALDS, GARLAND, etc. going cheap to GEIV~ Good stock of the u sual bound vols. of MAGNETS, POPULARS, etc. reading Can still offer some early green GEMS, tatty (Usually se ll copies, some without co vers - 50 for £25. if good at £4 to £5 each!) My selection . and Book Club Specials All HOWARD BAKER facsimiles only £1 - available. On these the postage charge is for ~ quantity. on h the very high prices around I've kept my feet Wit were! the ground. My price s are as keen as they always goodies, but Visitors most welcome to see some of the 1 anywhere ! please ring first . ·1 ve got st ill the largest stock

NORMAN SHAW

84 Be lveder e Road, Upper Norwood, London, SEJ9 2HZ. Tel . 01-771-9857

Nea re st stat ion is B.R. Crysta l Palace 3 _____ Page COLLECTORS' DIGEST STORY PAPER COLLECTOR COLLECTORS' DIGEST foun ded in 1941 by founded in 1946 by W. H. GAN DER HERBERT LECKENBY STORY PAPER CO LL ECT ORS' DIGEST: Edit ed and Published ( 1959 - Januar y 1987) by Eric Fav ne VOL. 41 No. 490 OCTOBER 1987 Price 52p ~t ed . (COPYRIGHT. This magazin e is non-profi t making and 9riva te~ y c ircul wr itt en The r-eproduction of the contents ei th er wholly or in part , wi thout pa1mis s ion from The &ti to r, 1s str ict ! v for bidden . )

OLD FAVOURITES REVIVED: It is the fate of man y collectors to find one book in a favourite series p articularly elusive. A striking examp le, of course, is Ri chmal at Cro mpton' s William the Lawless, th e lack of whi ch m ars a gre number of otherwise compl ete co llecti ons o f William b ooks. I was , fortunat e enough to be give n a mint copy o f thi s s ome year s ago ds but - as C.D . readers may noti ce fr om my occasio nal 'want s' a Page 4 - a book in another long-run ning series which has always eluded me is The Chalet School and Rosalie. Unlike all the others in Elinor Brent-Dyerr s Chalet School series, this originally appeared in paper back. Happily (and here I feel there should be at tremen­ dous fanfare of trumpets!), it is now once again available. Armada , who are gradually working their way through the ser ies, reprinted it a few weeks ago, so, at Jong, long last, my Chalet School collection is complete. The book is set in the midd le period of the saga when the Chalet Schoo l was te mporarily housed · in the Welsh border country. (The staff and students had b y then been forced to flee from the Nazis twice - first from their original location in the Austrian Tyrol, and next from the Channel Islands in which they had , rather unfor­ tunately, tried to put down new roots.) Their adventures began in the mid nineteen-twenties and cont inued to unfold un1til Elinor Brent-Dyer died .in 1969. Her fictio nal school, in its lush lake and mountain setti ng, had its own specia l place in t he girls' story gen re; founded by a young Englishwoman , it was international, tri­ lingual and non-denominational. (The author herself was a teacher, and the Founding Headmistress of the Margaret Roper Catho lic School, in Hereford.) An intriguing amalgam of foreign glar: , , - and Brit ish 'grit', the Cha let School soon caught the im 1agination of readers, and a long-lasting club was formed, whic h attracted a large membership from many parts of the world. Life at the Chalet Schoo! was never dull: the school buildings, for instance, in one of the books are threatened with destruction by fire, st orm and flood (not all at once of cou rse !). Gir ls fall into icebound rivers or are stranded on exposed mountain sides . In the first five books alone, Jo ey, the heroine of the saga , manage s to save the lives of six girls and one dog. The Chalet School and Rosalie, although rather less dramat ic than some of the Alpine adventures, is still a jolly good read in the best trad itions of the schoo l stor y. It is sat isf ying to reflect that this book, and the 39 other Cha let School stories reprin te d so far by Armada, appeal to today's schoolgir ls as well as to those of us who were devouring them during the 19201s - '30s . Other publishers are realizing that a good story has much to off er the children of our te levisi on age. D.C . Thom:son have recently rescu sitated that celebrated story-paper, Adventure, by bringiag out a live ly and well-produced summer special cif that name. A prop er story-paper (and not a comic) of 32 page s, it carries six tale s of derring -d o, with colo ur and black and white Page 5

pict ures. One s t ory is se t in Red Indian countr y; there is so me sc i-fi fantasy , mythi cal adventures, an S.A.S. mission, a co-e d school story and a footb all ep isode. Hope fully this Advent ure special might do well enough to per suade D.C. Thoms on's to r evive it as a regul ar weekl y s tory-pap er. The sa me enterprising publishers have furthe r demonstrated their historica l pride in the ir j uvenile publication s by issuing a bumper book in ce lebrati on of the fo r thcoming Golden Anniver sarie s of th e Dandy and Beano. (Called Dandy, Beano: The first fifty Years , th is is now in th e s hops a t £4.95 . Norma n Wright will be rev iewin g it, and writing about t he indes tru ct ible Dandy, in a forth­ co ming C.D .) OUR OWN ANNUAL: I would like to thank those who have al ready ordered copies of t he C.D . Annua l, and to remind othe r readers to send their orde rs in the fa irl y near fut ure, if poss ible, plea se {£6. 75, which includes post and pack ing for the U.K., or £7.35 fo r oversea s). Thi s 4 1st Annual will be brimming over with good thi ngs. C:.ir regu lar - and some new - writer s are at the to p of their form : so too are o ur illustr ato rs - Harr y Webb, Ter ry Wakefie ld, Bob Whiter and Norman Kadish . To whet your appetite for the article s and sto ries, le t m e mention the follow ing selectio n: Les Rowley enter ­ ta ining ly wr ites on About the Hols - or Bunter's Dile mm a, focussi ng on Grey friar s in the run-up to C hri stm as; 'J .E.M.' deals percept ively with The Support ing Cast in many o f our favo urite papers; C.H. Church ill ta ck les The Cads of St . Frank 's; Nick Godfr ey and John Bridgwater eac h cove r some in tr iguin g aspects of Blakiana : Esmond Kadish bring s some favour ite Cl iff H ouse char acte rs to vivid life in The Ca ptain, the and the 'Bull', while Ray Hopkins whisks us off once again into peril ous, far-flung parts i n the co mpany of the Morco ve chums. And next month we'll dip again int o the Annual's con tent s to 't ra il' furth er for thco ming de lights ' tvlARY CADOGAN • * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * • • * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * • * Books , with WANl'ED:Howar d Baker , Magnets , volumes 17 , 18, 29,. 39 . Also Bunter Elsie Oxenham, o .w. s . Evadne Price Jane books . William books with D.W. s . books . William Tbe Lawless , with/without D.W. E.M. Br ent-Dyer 1931, 1929 . F'CR SALE: Greyfriars Hol.iday Annuals , (originals) 1926, 1928, 1930 , Anderson Avenue, Good oondition . E.M. Turner ' s Boys Will Be Boys. James Gal l , 49 Aberdeen . Tel . Aberdeen 0224- 491716 . Page 6

Oct ober 1937

The Rio Kid is gallopi ng into new adven tures i n his welcome return in Modern Boy. In this first series he is staying as a guest of the bunch on the Lazy S ranch . The own~ of the ranch is worried because rustlers are :running off with lots of his cattle , and it seems clear that sane spy in t he ranch i s giving information and aid to the rustlers. The only man on the ran ch who is anta­ gonis tic to the Kid is Handsare Harris . The month ' s first story is "The Lonel y Hut ". There was sanething sinister about the hut which stood out on the range . In the hut the Rio Kid sat in the silel'lee awaiting trolilile - and it came . The second tale i s "Moonlight Stampede" . The rustlers have start ed the mad stampede , and , aioong the d0.\1boys, rides the Rio Kid, detennined to outwit the cattle thieves . Next came "Trai to:ir ' s Trail ". Where the rustlers are hiding out in the foothills is a mystery, till the Kid , now the foreman of the Lazy S, takes a hand. In the next ta l e "Watchers of the Range" , the Kid sets a trap for the rustlers. The final yarn of the series , "Rustler's Secret " brings a su r prise for the Lazy S bunch when one of thei r m.l!Tlber , Hand some Harr i s , i s expo sed as Scarface , the chief of the rustlers . A tip-top westerr , series . The latest series of captain Jus tice in Modern Boy is set in Tibet , and has Midge in a l eading ro l e. Midge has cane by a str9flge jewel , and he finds that one flash fran this j ewel ...orks wonders . The tit l es of this month ' s yarns are : "The Black Arrow", "The Mystic Eye" , "Avalanch e", Mountain of Mystery" , and "Eye of Argos". A pretty good m::>nth in the monthli es - the fourpenny ones. '''I'he Boy Who Knew Too Much" is the Greyfriars s.o.L. and continues the story of Lancaster . The one who actually knew too much is Harry Wharton - he knew that: Lancaster was "The Wi;zard" - and so Wharton was kidnapped to kee p him from b~lling what he knew. Page 7

Airman " which ccmpletes thE: srory The st . Jim ' s s .o .L. is "The Schoolboy but was sent to St . Jim ' s. This ooe of Angelo , who wanted to train as an a irman the end as "make weight ". ha s another tale about Skimpole tacked on at Kidnapped Schoolboy ". Dick Goodwin The St . Frank's ta l e in the s . o . L. is "The a secret whi,ch he is careful to keep is a newcaner to St . Frank ' s , and he has his s choolfellows . frcm of Rio Kid stories In the Boys • Friend Library there is a lovely collection It ' s great - like the Rio Kid al...ays under the ti tie of "The Six-Gun Outlaw". is. "Crooks ' Academy". A rather Another B. F . L. I had this rronth is entitled is a crook , and he always wears daft tale about a school v.here the Headmaster . They are out to train their pupils as <:i mask , as do all the other masters said if my Headmaster had worn a a:ask criminals . I wonder v.hat my Mum\..ow.d have when she went to interview him about me. this nonth . One is "The Stolen I have had two Sexton Blake Libraries "The Meloourne Mystery " by J . G. Brardon Sul:xnarine" by Stanton Hope, and other is sh reading . which stars R.s.v. Purvale. Both are fair i ll'OOth, and in each case we sa w a We have been to a Music Hall twice this Scott and Whaley in a r evue entitled tip-top revue . At New Cross Empire we saw have .heard quite a l ot lately arout "Sanctions". A play on INOrds, of course. We have imposed on Italy on account the sanctions which Britain and other countries "Splinter s of 1937 " which stars of the do i ngs of old Musso. The second revue was are gentlemen", and it is supposed by Hal J ones . In this revue "all the ladies party which the soldiers got together o::me fr om the "Rouges et Noirs " c.'Oncert saw this one at Ilford Hipp::rlraoe ertain the troops during the Grea t War. We to ent of a heart attack canon Dick Sheppard , the famous cleric , has died suddenly hls hane near st . Paul ' s . at is "Skimp:>le ' s Scrape" and A lovely rronth in the Gem. The opening story in which SJwnpole thought he bad this is a sequel to the last story of September ' t. And Skimpole had spent the noney. won £40 for his invention - .but h~ hadn wind . Next came '"llie New House Riot" So Tan Merry & Co. set about raising the led by Redfern. about a barring-out against Mr . Ratcliffe , . rt is a shock to Talbot \4tlen Then a lovely tale , "'Ihe Taff ' s Dark Hour" of his underw-.,rld days. Her name is he meets at Rylcanbe Station an old frienc:1 Professor , and she is her father ' s Rivers , the daughter of the criminal , the Marie eater shoc)c when Talbot lea.ms tha t accomplice in crime. aut it is an even gr a nurse . Marie is taking up a post at St . Jim ' s, as wicked plot by the Professor to Next , "The Boy They Betrayed" tells of the to the gang. And in the last Gem of disgrace Talbot and canpel him to return Tan Merry and his friends rally the m::inth we had "Starrli.ng by the Toff" in which of the Gem there have been the old r ound Talbot . A lovely se r ies . At the back ll good fun . Magnet series about Aliens at Greyfriars . A WaEner Oland and Boris Karloff Not a very great oonth at the local cinemas. Chan at the Opera" . I wasn ' t all that were in a neat thriller entitled "Olar l ie a Million" . Doug said that its oew keen on an ice-skating £ilrn entitled "One in was pretty awful , About Sonia Henie was awf ul pretty but I thought the film star an Olympic skating champion . th e daugh t er of a Swiss innkeeper who becanes Technicolour , and there are sane "Wings of the Morning " is a Bri tisb film in Page 8 .91e Bol' Wno t~r IN1wToo M1Jtn! =-

·. DICK LANCASTER . ~ , Idol of Creyfrlars~ a crook.I It la.a~ aho .RAR.R.Y WHAJtTON wbeJl · clt to he makes the sensational duco~Dut he ., llttle ~ -mat dla secret be bat discovered •peU. • • ._ dantu tor hi:m r - --....---..------~ - - • • I - -

oice scenes in it , though the story is s light. It stars Henry Foncla and Anna Neagle . " Elephant Boy" was another one without much sto ry , though the new .boy star Sabu is gcx:xi. In the film he is the son of an elephan t keeper . "Dreaming Lips" was another British film , th is time starrin g Elizabeth Bergner . I found it heavy-going, though Mun liked it . But the ve.ry best of the rronth was the Marx Brother s in ''A Day at the Races" . The brothers who nms help a a sanitorium and owns a raceho rse. The absolutely stunning. race at the finish is In the Magnet the wh0le rronth has been g:i ven over to the further adventures of Skip the pickJX:X:ket . Skip rend~ed a big se rvi ce to Coker of the Fifth , and in October ' s opening story , "Coker Takes Control" , Coker took Skip in hand to try to reform him . In che next story , "Coker ' s Big Idea" , Coker persuades his Aunty Judy to wangle Ski p into Greyf riars as a pupil. So next week we bad "Skip of the Remove". ''Giv e me a chance , and I ' 11. run straigh t ', vows Sk i p . But. Harry Wharton and his friend s cannot forget th e new boy ' s past . So Skip does not have an easy t.uoeof it at Greyfriars. But next week in "The Outcast of the School " Skip suddenly finds himself the hero of the school . Toe Cliff House girls figure praninently in this story , and Skip rescu es fran a watery grave. The final tale of the month is "Bad I.ad Smithy". The Bounder finds the shadow of the sack loaning over him and th e only one who can save hi10 i s , Skip , the ex-p i okp;:,cket. Mis s Bullivant , the maths mi.stress of Cliff House . begins to take a praninent part in the series Page 9

- and wily rea ders like me beg in to won:ier . ERIC FAYNE Comme nts o n thi s month's DANNY'S DlARY of th e S. O.L . No. 313 "The Boy Who Knew Too Much" was the thir d part half stori es Lanca st er Series to feature in the ironthly and canprised two and a . 31 "The fran that series which had appeared in th e Magnet in 1931. s.o.L. No 'lhis .o.L. Sc hool.boy Ainran" was the f inal part of th .e Gem' s Angelo Lee series . s in the Gero in comprised the last two stories of the ser i es which had appeared nearby in the autunu, of 1927 , plus a third story "Ski.mpol e ' s Telescope " fran the same period of the Gem to make weight in the s.o.L. lly , of Boys ' Fri end Library No. 593 "1he Si x-Gun Outlaw" came origina in th e B.F .L. co urse , from the Popul ar . The collection had been r ep rinted be f ore they never sane years earlie r under the sarre ti tle. One wonders idly why speciall y repr int ed su ch s tori es a s "After Li ghts Out" which Bamilten wrote School Under for the B. F . L. , and , of cour se , delightf ul Hamilton yarns like "The Canva s " . Were they half -as leep in the editorial office? oddly nie 1937 Gero story "Skimp:>le ' s scrape" had appeared under the Christnas i nappropr ia te titl e of "The Last Hope" in th e Gem of a few weeks befl!lre ' s Barrin g-OUt " in 1915 . The 1937 yarn "'Itle New House Ri ot" had been "Redfern jus t after Christmas in 1915 . The 1937 Tal l:x:>t seri es' "The Taf f ' s Dark Hour" , "The Boy They Betrayed" Pas t" (the and "Standing by the Taff " ha d been, respectively , " The cal l of the and "Loyal tale ...nich first in trod uced Marie Rivers) , "Cast Out Fran the School", - the best of all the ...v th?. Last " , i n earl y 1916 . It was a superb threescme tales of this Talbot ser ies . There is no do ubt that in early days , in sp lendid on his ligh t qua lity, Talbot was imnensely popular with read ers. As time went cloying s enti­ dim:ned as he was overplayed , and the subs , eager to pour thick thin . ment ali ty over the theme, seized on Talbot and his past and wore it "Tall:x:>t' s In passing , this su perb s erie s , plus two earlier Talbot tales ...oul d be \El l Triumph" and "Talbot ' s Christnas" (th e latter never re printed) ials " . And cal l worth the attention of Mr. Ho.vard Baker for his lovely "Sj.)E!C it "The Toff Story'' . e first The film "Wings of the Morning" which Danny saw in 1937 was th Briti sh film to be made i n Technicolow : . ******** * ********* * ********"'* * "'** * *"'** Library 0/S "Various pre~ duplicate O. B.B ' s for exchange e.g . Nelson Lee annuals . and N/S . Sexton Blak e Library etc . Sare post war material . Few K . fums end , 7 North Cl os e , Willin gt on, Derb y , DE6 6F.A. Phone Burton--On-'I'rent, 703305. * * * * "' * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * , Must. be WANTED: Heward Baker fac simil e Bunter and the Courtfield cracksman , Suffolk , in goc.rl condition . Ii. Webb, 74 Whitland Close , Stoke Park, Ipswich IP2 9Y'l' . Page 10

"THE MYSTERY OF EILEEN DARE." by C. H. CHURCHILL Jim Cook in his most interesting article in August C. D. gave the view that it would have been nice to have read that Nelson Lee had ma rr ied Eileen Dare. No doubt it would have pleased u s all to have read of such an event, disr egarding the fact that Le e was quite a lot older . Howev er, I can explain how it coul d not have happened . Eileen first appeared in N .L. No. 57 dated 8 July, 1H16 in pr e St. Frank' s days. tter father had been schemed against by a co llecti on o f crooked business men (under the leadership of one - Roger Haverfi el d) known as the "Combine". He had been wrongly accused of treason through their machination s. He h3d been sentenced to death b ut died in his ce ll the night before this could t ake place. Eileen, devastated by thi s, had sworn vengeance and from this idea E.S. Brook s developed a se rie s o f detective adventures comp ri sing sixteen stories, commencing as mentio ned above in No. 57. i\lelson Lee became involved and togeth er with Eileen eventuall y brought all the crooks to ju stice and Haverf ield to his death . Anyone read ing this screed might wonder what all thi s has to do with Jim' s idea of she and Lee marrying . The answer is in N.L. No. 115 dated 18/8/ 17 entitl ed "Eilen Dare's Triumph" . ln this final story of t he ser ies she more or less saved the life of an airman, Captain Bill y Masters. Hi s plane crashed very near to where Eile en and her aunt Esther wer e motoring . She dashed to the rescue and managed to pul l him clear befor e the mach ine caught fire. Their friendship devel oped from there, and eventually they become engaged, much to Lee's and N ipp er' s approval if it was needed! In v iew of thi s th e question of her marrying Lee never arose and cou ld not do so. They wer e very good fri ends through their adventure s fighting the Combine . Page 11 Eileen appeared again (still unmarri ed) in N.L. No. 130 "The Phantom of Tregel lis Castle" dated 1/12/17 . She also went on the sum mer holid ay adventure of 1918. Captain Masters appeared in No. 130 but not in the summer stories . He was said to have been in America on Air f orce business . In late r yea rs Eileen was menti oned a few times and some short stories appeared in which she was featured but these were not written by Mr. Brooks. We never read that she married Captain Billy in t he end. She just disappeared into the mists of time . A myste r y tndee d. • * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

MULTI MEDIA BLAKE, PART FIVE by Norma n Wright

Mayflower Books published the first t~ issues of the new format Sexton Blake Library" in February 1965. The slim paperbacks were badly di s tribu .ted and difficult to find in the bookshops. Longstanding readers had been pranised t hat one in four issues ~uld be a r eprint of a Blake classic. The reprints were a long time, .materialising and when th .e "Ca.se of the Bismark Menoirsl' did appear in issue 28 , I personally found it a big disappointment , never having been keen on any of Pierre Quiroule's Bl ake stories. There were no further early reprints, an indication that others shared my opinion . After staggering on it came to an end after only 45 issue.s in 1968. !n spit e 0f the demise of the •isexton Blake Library" the late 1960's saw an upsurge in Blake's µ:,pularity. A new series of Blake radio plays began on 24th August , 1967 with a stor:y ent it led "Lilies for the Ladies". There were at least f ourteen p la ys in the series al l o! them written by Donald Stuart. '!he le ading roles of Blake, Tinker and Paul Dane were played by William Franklyn , David Gregery and Heather Chasen respectively . The actors. were excellent in thei r roles, building up a good rapport ,,nth Page 12 each othe r. The stories were di verse in their themes. "First ClaBs Ticket to Nowhere" was very much of the time while others including "The Vampire Moon" - a tale of evil orientals and man eating fungus - was vintage Blake. "A Murder of Crows '' was a nove l idea , with everyone named Crow being bumped off by the mUX'derer_, just to make sure be got the correct viotim l William Franklyn was ideal as Bl ake , his versatile voice made the: 1T'Ost of the scripts without the slightest trace of ' sending it up' • David Gregory ' s Tinker could not fail to please , and he was not once called Edward Carter. Chief Inspector Coutts, play ed by Wi lfred Babbage , appeared in some of the s t.cries. Mrs. Barde ll was mentioned, but never actually appeared . The series was produced by Alastair Scott Johnston . Sexton Blake's T .V. debut was ip a series of pericx:1 plays set in the 1930 1s . Lawre nce Payne played the detective and Roger Foss took th e part of Tinker . The se rials , which ran for severa l seasons in the l ate 1960 1s had such titles as "The Grea t Train Robbery" , "Captain Nemesis" and "The Case of the Gaspin g Golatish ". Tney were intended for children and proved to be very popular . A p,icture strip vers i on ran in "" oanic which also gave away a series of pictur e cards enti tled ''The Adventures of Sexto n Bl ake" . cards were also given away with Sam Portex Gum, but at the time of writing it is no t cl ear whether or not the two ser i es of cards were the same or not . In 1968 "valiant" Book of T.V. ' s Sexton Blake" was published . "Mystery and suspense with the most famous detective of all tiire", ran the "blw~b. The boo lt wa s rrodelled on the Blake ann uals of th e lat e 1930's and consisted of stories , adventure str i ps and factual articles on police methods. An abrid ged vers ion of "Sexton Blake Detective " fr an "Union Jack" no 2 was dredged up and reprin ted. 'nle s tory , which bad origiTldlly appeared i n May 1894 , had previous ly beien re printed in the second of the pre war Sext:0n Bla ke Annuals. There were at least nine T.V. seria ls with Lawrence Payne and there would no doubt have been more if it had not been for a tragic accide nt. While filming a due l for the series Payne suf fer ed an inj ur y , and insp i te of five operations l ost the sight in one eye. After the s uccess o f the T.V . ser i es Dean and Co. publ i shed hardbac:ked ed iti ons of f our prewc;tr "Sexton Blake Library ' s". They were incredably gcxx:l value f or money at 2/6d each. The last T .V . appearance of the duo to date was in Sim:m Raven's sEir i al "Sexton Bl ake an d the Derron God" screened in 1978. Jereny Clyde . a one time !))p singer , played Blake and Phil i p Davis played Tinker. The tal e of Egyptian murrmies and ancient curses had little style and l eft one yawning inspite of the ' c:li ff hanger ' endings t o each episcx:le . A novelisation of th e serial was publish(!d by Mirror Books .. It was , as far as r am aware, the last original Blake story to be published . Such a poor tal e would hav e been a sad note on whi cb to end, but ·l uckily thing$ seem to be l ooking up a bit. The bllinper Bl ake omnib us "Sexto n Blake Wins", published by Dent and containing nin e r epr..i.nted ta les from the 1920 ' s. and 1930 's is , perhaps , an indication tha t sane publishers s ti ll think there ' s comnercial li fe in the old dog yet ! Page 13

THOSE LADIFS AGAIN by J.E.M. ·Re: Anne Clarke' s letter (August C.D.) Ms. Clarke may be surprised that my list of Blakian ladies (C.D. 485) stopped short of the Pau la Dane - Marion Lang era but, as T carefully pointed out, the so-called "New Look" Blake belongs to a different world entirely. In fact, for me, the high-powered, sexed-up. organisation-man Blake has about as much to do with ithe "real" Blake as Philip Martowe (or Sam Spade or Mike Hammer) has to do with . for me, as for many other readers, Sexton Blake (and, therefore, his ladies) "died" around 1940. On the ladies [ did fist, t referred the reader to articles in C.D. numbers 331, 371, 385, and 398. Meanwhile, herewith a few more odd scraps of information on some lesser known females, dredged up from my files: fifette Bierce: confederate of Kestrel the Master Mummer, created by Lewis Jackson. first appearance U J 620. Camille ~ Despard. ~fri end of the Blac k Rat, alias Inspector Hazard of the Paris Surete. First appeared UJ 701. Claire de Lisle: U Js 904, 909, 918 and 923. Julia fortune: Brit. Secret Service Agent . UJs 1013, 1038, 1182 etc . GJoria Dene (Dean?): Decoy of a criminal called the Gargoyle. UJ 1307. Judith Major: Wife of the Scorpion. UJ (numbers not known). Glory Sale ~ Girl Reporter. SBL No. 71 and others. Kathleen Maitland (Broadway Kate): Husband of Ezra Q. Maitland. Denise Drew: the "Carrier Pigeon" or crook's messenger. first appearance UJ 1252. Mlle Miguet (the Butterfly): friend of Dirk Dolland, the Bat. Was dropped when Dolland reformed. Nhin Kee: SBL (first series) 360. fa rim a: SBL (second series) 129. Jessica $lessor : UJs 1288 and 1295. Biwi: SBL (second series) 189.

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DO YOU REMEMBER?

By ., ".. .:. -··...... ,.., .,,. l·~~··- ROGER M. JENKINS ·=.t. ...;:-. ~... . •:::! ?:-•"

No. 225 - Magnets 1-434-9 - Portercliffe Hall Series. There were still sane good things in the Magnet in the year 1935 , and t:.he opening nmi:>er of the series witih the pranising title of "Fish ' s Holiday Stunt" began with a seeningly trivia l incident which nevertheless made a great deal a of differenG:e to the ult ima te course of events . Kipps , the conjw~er , took letter of Bob Cherry ' s and apparently threw it out of the window in.to a strong the wind . Bunter tried the sane trick with a letter of Fish ' s , and of course letter got lost . Fisby kept kicking Bunter until be found the lette.r am, when hfa Bunt er did in fact chance to cane across i t , it happened to cane ,open in hands and he discovered that Mr . Hiram K . Fish was renting Portercliffe Hall as with an option to purchase , and that a number of juniors could be invited they would cane in useful . Fishy was boasting that his father ha.d µirchased eX}'.OSe the Hall , and B\mter bla ckmai led his way i nto the party by threatening to Fishy ' s boasting . The c:anposition of the holiday _party was unusual . In addition to the Faroous Five , who ....ere glad to cane as Wharton Lodge would be empty that surrrner , there was Vernon- Smith , Wibley , Kipps , and Alonzo Todd . It was Alonzo ' s gl o r ious swan song in the Magtiet , and he had intended going hiking with his cousin Peter , walking aoout half a mile a day and lecturin g about Nature en route. Bunter achieved an invitation for Alonzo becaus e he was sud! a soft touch f() r borro..ing money . Al th ough th e group seemed h eterc.,geneous , i n fact all had vital parts to play in the plot , apart fran Wible y who seemed to be there merely to add to the htJ:OOUr. The young l.0rtl Portercliffe , after paying death duties , was so impoverished that h e was obliged t o live i1'l Switzerland~ the Swiss franc was very .low in those days . His father bad hidden a h oar d of sover ei gns and Bosanney , his former secretary , had appr ised Mr . Pish about this . Mr . Fish hoped to find the cache and then purchase Portercliffe Hall with Lord Portercliffe ' s own mney , a sharp so rt of transaction that appealed to the transatlantic minds of the Fishes. the 'rhe juniors were to help in rooting about the place , but no one re ckoned on ghost in period costume that survived even bullets fran Mr. Fis h ' s own . Of course , it was Bunter who found part of the heard and he went round Margate passing sovereigns , to everyone ' s extreme s urprise. This was the last Magnet Sumner holi da y set in a sta tely hc:rne, arii it Page 15 possessed a11 the fascir..ation of that period of luxurious living , with a but 1er , footmen, a stable of horses, and a garage of cars . It was als o a piece of supreme self - indulgence on the part of the author , as I realised when I visited Char les Hamilton and he voluntar il y indentified the l ocal mansion on which Porterclif f e Hall was based . Not only were there a rn.imber 0£ scenes in Margat e but the juniors even walked alo ng the beach to Kingsgate , where the author lived , and were cut off by the tide in an excit in g episode that had nothing to do with the plot, rut it must still have afforded Charles Hamilton sc:xne amusement to bring his fi ctiooal ch aracters al.roost to his= front door . The series developed i n sty le, ,witb no repeti t ion. The early part was devoted t o tricks by the hosts to try to get rid of Bunter , then carre the ghost , the di scovery of the secret passages, and finall y the battle of wits between Mr . fish and the man pl aying ghost, all embellished with sane buax:nn: and sane dramatic i nc i dents involving the juniors. Needl ess to say, Mr. Fish did not succeed in cheati ng young Lord Portercliffe who came into his fortune in the end . Magnets 1434-9 constituted a fascinating series that shed a delightful glow of pleasure fo r all th e paper's r ead ers in that far-off year 1935. As I was one of tbose readers I can personally vouch for the truth of this assertion ! * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * •· * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * .. * SCHOOLMASTERSREMEMBERED (No. 2): A..J.M. by Norman Kadish I think frank Ric hards never used a P.T. master as a model for one of his important characters. Am I right? [ have slight reco llections of a Sergeant in the Rookwood sto ries , but don't re member any character of physical training becoming a major fictional per sonal ity . Irr St. Frank 's a Sergeant is also ment ione d~ l think, but again only vaguel y. A.J .M. or Mr. Marle y was the exact opposite. He was a real-life ex P.T. Regimental Sergeant-Major (Meritorious Serv ice Medal ) and a champi on gymnast . A shortish, burly figure, ye t still intensely agile in his 50s and 60s. }-le 'took us' for gymna st ics with apparatus. We had the full equipment, hori­ zonta l parallel bars, rings, horse and ropes, and he still gave display s of the 'grand circ le' (circling flat out) at the age of 50 plus. We had a school battalion; no uniform s, but in each form-room was a rack filled with wooden shaped rifles with brass trigger handles. On the bugle sounding, we all dashed, grasped a rifl e, ' fell-in' in the playground and mar ched over 't he downs' (a park -li ke group of local fields) behind the school band. Often I saw this burly figure vault the railing s, keeping his frock togethe r , with his short swagger 6tick unde r his arm. I well remember an occasion in the gym. We all had to have full gym equipment, white trou sers, wide, two-coloured sc hoo l belt and vest and shoes. Marley was checking over our shoes , which we stored in our individual locke r s. Looking over his glasses at us Page 16

'fags' and remarking on the odd pairs of gym shoes, he fina lity added , a la Mrs. Malaprop: 'I don't want you boys to have any more of these cosmopolitan shoes!' As stated in the old boys' s,ection of the school magazine, 'No slackness or slovenliness ever escaped his eye •••but beneath a stern exterior there was an innate love of his school, his colleagues and his boys'. I was one of his 'blue-eyed' boys, taking part in the inter-hou se gymnastic competitions, and leader of one of the rope-climbing teams 'hands-only' section. I took an evil delight in descending slowly so that other boys, with longer legs to be carried, did not regard this little exercise with too much favour. Learning to swim I was taken by Marley on a sort of fishing rod (probably his own invention, 'the school gym belt being fastened round my middle) , down to the middle bath and deep end, myself splashing away with imitation strokes . Unfortunately, the head part of me overbalanced and dipped under water . I came up like a frantic half-drowning kitten. Still, it did not do me much harm, and I am still a fairly competent swimmer. Again from the school magazine: 'Such brave (gymnastic) displays and indeed every part of his work, required long preparation and Page 17

gruelling exertion; and Marley, who did not spare himself, did not spare his pupils. They may have groaned under his iron discipline or grumbled against the demands he made upon their strength and their leisure, but they learned to know the joy of a job well done, and they will not forget the man who taught them that lesson.' * * * * Page 18

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SUNNY SIDE UP by Arthur Marshall (Hamish Hamilton £10.95). Reviewed by_ Mary Cadogan . Few writers and broadcasters are blessed with the gift of being consistently - and unma licio usly - funny. Happily , for decades now, that genius o,f fdvolous geniality , Arthur Marshall , has remained unquenchable. SUNNYSIDE UP, his latest vol ume of ri b-tickling . reflections, is a delight to dip i nto . He ca:;;ts his net wide and deep , exploring everything fran British Railway catering to the vintage Girl ' s Own Paper's replies to readers ' letters (health and beauty hints such as the use of perfumed cod-liver oil or chest ~ders , and the rubbing of eyebrows with raw onion pieces are particular 1 y ri vetting) • Amongst this book ' s many gems , there is much for those of us who have a passion for school stories: the works of Angela Brazil, a l ways admired by Arthur Marsha ll , crop up on several . occasions; there is a lovely school cricketing -umpir e item , and sane intriguing speculation about the schooldays of Df:lllas ' s J.R. (arriving at Eton with too much pxket-rroney and plenty of con . man schemes) , and Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth { pictured by the irrepressible Arthur as 'a vigorous hockey captain - Cries of Sticks ' - and a regular dem:>n at the bully-off ' ) . SUNNYSIDE l}P is a 'mu.st ' to buy, beg or borrow . - THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL RIVALS Frank Richards. ( Howard Baker Book Club Special: £18 . 00) Reviewed by Eric Fayne. Tnere is no mystery st.0ry in this oollection of Red Magnets - but there is a p.izzle . The p.izzle is to find any connection between the overall title of the volume and the contents . There is no Gramnar School associated in any way with Page 19

Greyfriars. Possibly the publisher had in mind Coru:tfield Council School or Highcliffe , both of which feature in separate stories. But what ' s in a title? The volume oanprises 6 consecutive Red Magnets fran the autumn of 1914, Three '.)f the stories are by substitute writers . The volume is marvellousl y fascinating for the Greyfr i ars historian and the Magnet collector. It is a joy to evaluate just how the old paper - and the authors - adapted themselves to the Great War which had started t ....o months earlier. Fran several weeks earlier the Greyfriars tales had lost a few chapters fran the very long yarns which had been the rule in early days . The Magnet itself had l ost 4 pages , the 32 pages being reduced to 28. It was still a superb pennorth . A war serial had been added, so now ther e were t....o serials pro tern instead of the normal single serial - and the war serial was often given pride of pl ace , as the opening attraction in th e paper. A war flavour, a patrioti c fervour, was evident in rrost of the yarns. In the first 6 years of the Magnet there !:}ad only been a rrere handful of sub tales - just enough to give the Greyfriar s creat or a little rest, rrayhap . Now, in 6 aonsecutive weeks , we get no les s than 3 sub tales. It is known that Hamilton was in Europe when war broke out, and for a while he must have .found difficulty i n writing and in getting wmi.t ....ork he was able to do through to his editor . We have an adequate explanation for the sub tales at this period . Yet, even after matters settled down aga i n , fran now on the subs were to play a large and larger part in presenting the stories as the years went by, and the reason for this is a matter for mere speculation. One thing is assured . It cannot have been t'iat the sub tales were particularl y popular with the average reader. In the Magnets of the period ooverecl by th i s volume it is intriguing to see how the sub writers adapted themselves to the ...ork. The volume's opening ta l e , "Won By Piuck" t is a sub t ales. Tan Merry wri tes to Harry Wharton to suggest that st. Jim ' s and Greyf ri ars should canpete in raising Tl'OTleyfor a war charit y . Mark Linley f eatures in the essenti .a.L heroi c episcx:le, and in the end the two sc hoo l s tie, each raisin g CSO. Ramil ton is back in "Foilin g th e Poe", a theatri call y ina dequate title. In a tale which may have gone over well in 1914. Whart on, and Trumper of tb e Courtfield Schex>l , are kidnapped on the bea€ h , late at night, by German seamen whose cruiser has slipped in t o Pegg Bay . The German comnander wants Trumper t o pil ot his ship i n the bay , or the two boy s will be shot, Trumper agree s to pi l ot the ship - and like a true patriot , piles the German cruiser up on the rocks . I wonder whether the absurdi t y of th e plot struc k the youthfu l readers of 1914 . Would the Camiander of a Gerrran cruiser really ask a schex>lboy to pilot his shi p? Maybe in 19 1 4 they were read y to bel i eve an y imbecil i ty of th e Huns . "The Photo Prize" is another sub story. A news paper offers a pr ize for the best set of amateur snapshots, and Bunter sets out te win it. The next tale was another war yarn f ran Harnil tol'l, and it was a famous t ale in its day, though it is ma.inly forgotten nc,,., , It has the feeble title of "I.Doking For Alonzo", though th e Magnet's red cover carries the far rror e striking caption of "Harry Wharton & Co. i n France". Peter Todd gets the alarmin g news that Alonzo and his Uncle Benjamin are stranded in SWitz erland following a holida y . The Bounder and Pet er set out to fin d them . A sombre ta le, but ingenious and ex c iting . Page 20

Undoubtedly the star turn of the bxJc, and well worth the admission rroney . Next "The Reign of Terror" would seem to be the first sub Greyfriars sto ry Gadsby fran Samways . He must h ave been very young and in expe rienced at the time . of Highcliffe canes to Greyfriars as a denti st, Mr. Theodore Lugg , and proceeds to extract Greyf riars teeth . Tales of schoolboys in disguise always strain the credulity of the reader, but to imagine a schoolboy , disguised as a dentist, bei ng ri ght up again st you without your reali sin g that he is a boy in disguise that with forceps, rather goes over the limit . This tale is so preposterous it cannot miss giving you fun . Fin ally , it canes to Hamilton to strain the credulity, in "The Black Foot ­ matc h , ballers ". Mr . Quelch be cane s sanething of a tyran t , and bans a f,?Ot.ball against St . Jim ' s . t1arry Wharton & Co ., overcane the t roubl e by disguisbg them­ selves , as the tit.le suggests. So , a volume packed with intere st , especially for the his torian . And the production , as alway s with these lovely books , is superb . CRICK ET BOOKS (PAVILION LIBRARY SERI ES: £5 .95 ea ch) Reviewed by Eric Lawre nce.

'l'he author spent the surrrner of 1978 touring England to di scover how cricke t in was surv1.vl.Ilg the influence of Kerry Packer and the resultin g upsurge . materialism, which was rep:,rted to be undenni.ning the general health of the garre The frui ts of his research aze contained in this book where he covers cricket at all level s fran school and village club to Test matrn , passing through League , and and Mino r county on the way. The 1978 sea son was plagued with bad we,:1ther has rMny of the 111Bt.ches he watched were affe cted by rain . Nevertheles ,s , he r captured the fundalrentcil nature of the game in a way not alway s achieved by othe fo r writers . It i s sug gest ed in the fir st introd uct ion that part of the :ceason this perception is the fact that Geoffrey Mcx,rhouse is not a pr ofes sio n.al cricket , writer, and he has therefore brought a fresh and sympath etic mind to his subject a mind which has not becane conditioned over the years to the gradual changes in the game. This is a most absorb i ng book , one which is diffic ult to put down . It should its be en joyed by all who watch and savour English cricket at any or a.ll of stra tas . P.G.H. PINJl1Jt - A BI~ - by Ridlard Sb:eetal Percy George Herbert Fender was considered by many knowledgeable cricketers Test to be the fines t county captain who was never chosen to lead his country in natches. .Fran 1914 to the mid-1930s he was one of the 110st. con trove rs ial persona­ lities in the garre, irrrnensely popular with p l ayers and spectators but regarded with sare disapproval by cri cke t ' s hierarchy , probably because of his outspoken nature . This latter characteristic may have been resp:,nsible for him not being selected for the England captaincy . For about a decade he was captain of Surrey and he brought to that task a zest , sagacity and shrewd tactica1l ability unequalled in other countries. Page 21

The Australian-made television series "Bo::lyline" was quite p:,pu lar wi t h the general pililic, but was justly ridiculed by those who know cricket . It depict ed Fender as sareone who wore a rronocle and played the l)]celele, and I remember staring at the T.V . Sel:"een ir} amazement at this gross misrepresentation of the man. It might well have been a character from a novel by P . G. Wodehouse and it was described by his daughter as a "diabolical distortion" whi.ch had t0 be concealed from her ageing father . Cartoonists however, lo ved Fender. Tall, thin , curly-hai red , bespectac l ed , moustached and often wearing a sweater so long that the bottom nine inches or so had to be turn ed up, he was a dream subject and as such, was imrortalised in the cartoons of Tan Webster and that fine Australian bowler Arthur Mailey. One day in August 1927 when playin g for Surrey against Northaroptons hire, Fe nder .scored a century i n 35 minutes and ended with 113 not out. This i s sti 1J a firs t c;:l ass cri cket i ng recor d , althoug h equalled a few years ago in grotesquely contrived circumstances . Richard Streeton has written a fine and tasteful biogra.i;:hy of a great cricketer who was also a g-xeat cha,racter. Fender died in 1985 at 92 years of age , just four years after the orig i nal publication of this book. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * • * * • * * * * ANSWERS TO SONG TITLE QUIZ (From August C.D.)

1. Two sleepy people. 13 . Sweet Lorraine 2. Among my souvenirs L4 . These foolish thin9s 3. 1 1 11 see you in my dreams 15 . When I grow too old to drea m 4. It ' s a lovely day taoorrow 16. My old shako 5. 17. The anniversary waltz 6. A pr et ty girl is like a melody 18. Anything goes 7. Chorus gent l emen 19 . All the things you are 8 • Blue m:x::m 20 . The birth of the bl ue s 9 . Deep purple 21. Embraceable you io . Once in love with Amy 22. Goody, goody 11 . Singin ' in the rain 23 . A foggy day 12. Stardust 24. I ' ll see you again

Our w inner is Mr . G. W. Brickell of Bath, wi t h 22 correct titles . (Nos. 7 and 16 stumped eve r ybody !). Th e book token prize awarded by Mr. Eric L awrence has heen sent to Mr . Bricke ll. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Page 22

LETTERS TO THE EDITRESS!!

on Alfred Fdgar's editorship BILL UFl'S (Landon) I stand of course corrected up. H e was certainl y editor of that on Pluck. Scmehow th e date had got muddled , as he wrote about his ability on paper during its run under Addington Symonds Library day s , probab ly the paper during its run . Edgar , af ter The Nelson Lee grou p , where he wrote many o f went on th e Startler/Bu.llseye/Surprise editorial th e nos t farrous stories in Bullseye . ec:iitor ia ls. But it is a fac t I greatly enjoyed Lesl ie Laskey ' s article on editor at all. "Cane in to the Office that some were not devi5ed or written by the who was editor of various girls' Boys and Girls " was the bi.a.in child of E. L . Mc.'(eag It was he wt10 answered papers , and had nothing to do with the Magnet staff. sub-editor) had to do was to r eade rs' qu erie s fo r years , and a ll th e editor (or . D. C. Thomson pape r ::: certainly add the contents of next week ' s thr illing story ' Sez You ' - so different f ran had editor i als - the ll'Cst farrous being liotsp.ir's g man who addressed boys as equals Ltd. It shc,...,ed_ a breezy youn per sonal fr iends , - as chums - in a very -friend ly svirit , or treated readers as and never in a condescend ing manner . August c.o ., the school hardcover In answe r to D.J . Rardmcm (Australia) in the rt J . Robinson and p1..1blished in story "Cousins at Carsdale" was wri tten by Hube wrote about four books , pro bably January 1933 at l/6d . by Nesbit & Co. He only that had s evera.l reprints . hi s np st successful l:leing "The Imposture Prefect" this may have be en a nan-d ,e-plurne for I kncM nothing abou t the writer, though J . Kir kpatrick and Mr . Ray a be tt er kno,,.,n author. (&lit.or ' s note : Mr . Robert . Hopkins al s o ga ve us in fo rmation about. this book) ' s remarks on her holiday in Italy , and seeing c.e. ~ (Exe te r) Our Editor n:ost in t lil'esting to me.. I believe Vesuvius or Vesuvio as they say out there, were . I was around there at the time the l a st time an eruption of note was in 1944 masses of srroke and asheis and wha t­ and well remember what a sight it was. By cay seemeo to be on fire: , We could ever towering into the sky and at night the peak es . Rat.her soaring, r eally , see th e g lowing lava pour in g down the mountainsid Army! ) Luc;:kily we were :soon off to being as near as we were (courtesy of the there , about 100 miles or so away , Bari on the Adr iati c , ea s t of Napl es . Even d sm::>ke. We found on returni ng when i t rained the rain was dirty from th e dirt an with dirty grey dust which took fran journeys that we were absolutely covered village right beh in d Vesuvius ealled sane get ting r id of . Later we were in a tiny everywhere and was sc, light that Africola. There the lava dust was inches thiek were walking abo ut in a thick gre y wa1king about di str.urllled it are we found we . I f anyone reading thi s was there clooo. knee high . We were thankful. to depart at tha t time I should like to hear fran them . George Perry ' s~rt, A Bear ' s NmDff E.L. ~ (Hi gh Wycanbe ) Upon reailing did the artwork for a publication Life , 1 note with in~e~est that Alfred Bestall (continued over/ • • ) "Eve" producing a certificate headed:- Page 23

EVE The Gir l s ' Salon for the advancement of A:rt, Music , Literature and all good works arrong the younger readers of .-.Eve'' can any reader offer some cl ue about a publication of this nature?

PF:l'E ~ (Northampton) I note that Danny is looking forward to "Another Wun Lung" China series . I have long held the opinion that this ser ie s was meant to be j ust that . But because of the Japanese invasion of China (July 1937) Frank Richards deemed i t prudent to cut it short. Perhaps ehat is why we had two foreign hi:>liday stories next year ~ G.W. M1IS:N (Torqua y) If "Danny" (August C.D . ) regards Grundy as a "bore'', why did he buy , artd read a (1937) watered down version of a (1915) Vintage Gem, the f onrer with the obvious title of "Fdit<:>r Grundy '' ? George Alfred Grundy, I consi der , was ,always well adapted to the role for wh.ici1 he was created by Charle s Hamilton , and his "image" was never intended to be sub sequently reduced an6 dictorted by the blue pencils of indifferent, editorial assi stan ts . G:lUX:11R.IB:W (Chester le Street) I hav e j ust been reading one of the 5th series Sexton Blakes - "This Spy Must Die" by Peter Saxon . It was not a detect i ve story , but simply a thriller . Blake had to try and get a man out of Russia. Ho..rever it went at a very fast pace with plenty of thrills and ex citanent all the way through . Whilst I was reading it I thought what a pity it had not bee n made in to a film. I am sure it would be every bit as , or perhaps more , exciting than any of the James Bond films I have seen . I think the film producers miss a trerrendous number of good stories which could be t urned in to J.x»c office hits if only they were aware of what i s available in our hobby . * **** *** * * *** * *"** * **** * ****** ******* ** CLIFF HOUSE CORNER,

By MARGERY WOODS

Most ardent collectors have wild, wonderful dreams in which th ey go to an auction , or car boot sale or scruffy l i tt.le junk. shop and discover gor geous piles of old storypapers sleeping under col:;:,.vebs in a forgotten corne r - at which poin t the dream er usually wakes up . But occasieamally dreams do come true , as one of mine did this week . Page 24 - -on my birthday , which really The fhone rang , and a couple of days later arrived at my doo,r , courtesy -- the whole of Vo l. I of THE SCHCOI.GIRL made my day shock , espec ia l! y il . 1 haven ' t yet quite got over tl1e of our caring Royal Ma r ea l the seduc tiv e bait for new rea den; , six as the first six issues carried freebees FREE~ and two of these delightful little i;i'lotos of farrou s film st ar s , k between the pages . (Alas , Cl i ve Broo had actually survived nearly sixty yeax:s in an ol d movie on Channel 4 I have under­ was miss in g ! Since se eing him recent ly ent, rrovie heroes.) But of wuch greater stood what they meant by st.roog, sil storypaper , th e su ccessor to the sadly interest was th e content of this new SCHOOLFRIEND. defunct , 1929 , the cover a mixture of orange The date of number one was August 3rd ve a s the px:eclaninately dark blue against and purple , not to my mind a s attracti girls of th e delight'ful Laidler orange of later years when the Cliff House and Editor ' s Page was on the inner cover i llustrations adorned the covers . The a cti ve schoolgirl tale,nt gathered depicted the Editor with a fine arr ay of attr was much in evidenc e , no doubt to pranote round his desk . The inev itable pipe influen ce 011 impressionable young minds. the safe , father-figure image of this new readership this time . N<> les s than A. P . seerred dE,termined to hook their . CINDERELLAOF THE CIRCUS fran the four serials ec:.mrenced i n the fi rst issue .e prime spot, and pl:ime resp::m­ and relidble pen of Muri el Holden held th capable to read on and reach ser ial number for ensuring that th e r ead er con tinued sibility Joy Phillips . Then adventure , IN THE DAYS OF THE TERROR, by two , dil historical by then- -- they pr esented -- s ure l y they ' d cau gh t the ir audience to make a chang e old THE OLD KEEP, by Louise Car 1ton, with a lon g canplete story , THE SEDU:r OF gipsy gi rl and mystery . Next--never ruined castle , caravan , and a beautiful by Eli se Probyn , yet another the serial. forinat returned , this time let up !-- - perhaps to be a uth ors , entitled THE RIVIERA REVELLERS, of A. P. ' s popcu.ar a se th os e not-very-well-off children of tho vicarious holiday exper i ence for all era was on ly a name on their school atlas dark depression days to whan the Riv i just that. and l ik ely to remain was th e only alrrost diffidently with in the back pages La stl y , tu cked away AT ser ial , by Hil da Richards , THEIR FEUD schoo l sto ry in the paper , the fourth and Co . of Cli£f House School. in vitin g the reader to meet Barbara Redfern SOKX)L, began in a slight ly r evival , whether by accid ent or design , Th is Cliff House two instal ­ most of the C.H . stories in that the first different writ;ing st.yle to g Cicely Frane, a new gi rl j,ust arrivin ments were told .Eran the vi ewpoint gf idely used in much popular . The us e of this writin g method , w at the school be meeting Babs rea der s , nost of whcm, if not all , would f iction, meant that r,ew e uced to them and the sc hoo l through th and co. for the fiJ!"s t tim e, were introd need to resort to tedious narrati ve eyes of a neW€aner. And so , without the and_ who a meanie was , the characters explaining who was woo, who was a goodie and the leading lights registered in the of the girls were instantly expressed g sty l e falls back into th e famili ar readers ' imagination. La t er , the writin the author to observe fran a neutral angle or enter "author anniscient", allo.,ing and character , very useful f or errotional impact the heart of any one particular ed then , the A.P. swry-spiMers were skill heightened readei:-identiffoation . But of treating a storyline c,3me to them at their craft, the "right " meth0d unfailingly. Page 25

It was to be at least another two years before John Wheway took over Cliff House , but in those early days of THE SCHOOLGIRL he could be f ound getting into t op ge ar f.or the years t o come whe n Cl i ff House would reach what many devDtees cons id er the great years of the schcx,1. Here in issue 16 o f 1929 he gave us "a fascinating new seri al" NAIDA OF THE MYSrIC NILE by Heather Granger , in whic h one can discern s tr an ge echoes of the future rather than the pa.st: when Babs and Co . would share many exciting adventures in Egypt and surely the irost exotic of all Chris tma sses wit h the Pr ince s s Naida of Luxor * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * • * * * * * * * - * * * * DISPOSING of rror e of my collection * * * * * , ANNUALS; Boys ' and Girls ' hard and paper ba cks Modem Boys , Lees ; , Gems , Magnets , etc . Bound and Loose . S . A. E. for full list E . McPherson . , ' Tynings ' , UpPer Milton , Wells , Sanerset , 131>.53AJ . • * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

·T ' .,.•- 4 Page 26

. , . -:,,., ·. ,~ ·.~ ...,... ·. CLUBS] NEWS OF THE OLDBOUK BOYS ... ;.i : ~ // ..·. \....•.-,· , . . 2,\l··.·~~ ..

CAMBR IDGE CLUB se ason too k the form of The f irst meet ing of o ur 1987/8 8 del ightf ul h ome at :S wef fling, a vi~it to Neville and Ruth W ood's Su ffolk, on Sunda y, 6th Sep tember. eated us i:u u ~rr;senta tion Cl ub business co mpl ete d, Nev ille t r ting t he Fre nc hman's stylishly about 'th e Art of Ja cques Ta ti - highligh eo of 'Mon Oncle' from the observ ed hum our by s howing a vid n fi ftie s. n1netee lavis h ent ert ain ing of o ur After thanking our h osts fo r their the usual torr e ntial dow npour - Cambrid ge par ty , we dep art ed in ummer of 1987. un for tun a tel y only to o co mmon this s ADR IAN PEH.K INS

NORT HERN OLD BOYS' BOOK C LUB evitabl y led to a sligl~t ly Holi days a nd othe r engagemen ts in 449 mee t ing o f the cl ub o n lower attendance of ten at the ood ag ree d t o ta ke the C ha ir 5th Se pte mber . Rev d. Ge offr ey G ll p rese nt w it h a reading in his and, a fte r club business , d elight ed a 1277: 'Billy Bunt er 's Ela d Luc k', own, inim itable s ty le, of Mag ne t a wasp. Later h e read anoth er in which the Re move a re tro ubled by g, thi s ti me from 'Gr ey fria rs humoro us piece of fr ank Ri chard' s writin t 617, when Gosling be came for Gr ownups' by L. Sut to n (fr om Magne a tr imonial sc hemes). enta ngled with m lowers gav e us an Bet ween these tw o exce llen t i tems Harry B ra cters of L aw an d Order '. As unusu a l quiz e nti t led 'fieti onal Cha mson was o ne o f the winner s, usual our o ldest me mbe r Bill Willi a Page 27

joint with Arthur Fortune. Refreshments were gratefully received, provided by Peter Plowman and Daivd Bradley. As Johnny Bull Minor was absent on his summer holidays, a temporary reports secretary was found. Next month will see the vis it of Bill Lofts, which we are all look ing forward to. The date will be 10th October.

PAUL GALVIN

LONDON O.B.B.C. For the seventh time in the thirt y-nine year s of the Club' s existence, we met at the Charles Hamilton Museum in Maidstone, Kent. After our welcome from our worthy President and Curator of the Museum, John Wernham, and preliminary conversations and get-togethers, we adjourned to the meeting room for a showing of two films. The first was the historic one of Charles Hamilton, and the Club's Margate lunch eo n party. The second was of beautiful Kent ish locations, and scenes from Stratford on Avon and Oxford. After the tea-break Graham Bruton conducted a Twenty Questions quiz, won by Mark Taha with Roger Jen kins in second place. Book prizes were awarded. Then came Mary Cadogan's excellent discourse entitled Charles Hamilton: A Lifelong Companion. To illustrate Hamilton's ski lled use of fanguage, Mary gave · two readings from the Gem and Magnet respectively. One described the confrontation between Skimpole and Gussy about Socialism ;1nd 'bloated aristocrats'; the other dealt with the time the venerable Dr. Locke received a cablegram from Hyram K. Fish containing the myste rious message 'Keep Tabs on fish', which Mr. Quelch had to translate into King 's English for the worthy Greyfriars Head to understand. Votes of thanks were accorded to John Wernham for his fine hospitality. Next meeting at 58 Stanwell Road, Ashford, Middlesex, TW 15 3DV. 'Phone Mr. Litvak on 07842 53609. (A ful l tea will be provided, but kindly bring own cup or mug.) The date wi II be Sunday, 11th October.

BEN WHITER Page 28

THE UNFOLDING ENIGMA OF ISOBEL NORTON

delightful surprise to hear from Bill Lofts that Reg What a ser ial Kirkham was responsible for the final, unfinished Valerie Drew paper thi s prolific author is not usually in THE SCHOOLGIRL, a story ry Marlow with. Apart from one of his usual hilarious Hila associated and three ilThat Joyous Adventure of Trixie' s'' ( 1932), se rials, "Schoolgirls e serial s using his Pauline Stewa r t pen-name, adventur est for the (1932), "Orphan of th e Jungl e", and ''Delia' s Qu in Per il" in THE Golden Keys" (both 1935), his work did not appear SCHOOLGIRL. THE Better known for his "Gr and Laughter Stories" in oan Vincent and 1924 SCHOOLGIRLS' WEEKLY ( 1923 to t 933 as J in th is paper was 934 as Hilary Marlow), his final appearance to I Spark s o f the 24-week series as Hilary Marlow, "The Bright a long, "New an d ( 1936-37 ). His last humorous stories were both Family" in the SGOL, Original" (not pr eviously printed as serials) and appeared Had S uch a Winning Way" by Hilary Marlow, and "Tilly Turns "Wyn severa I gaps in Tables" by Joan Vincent (both 1939) . The tbe by work on of the above sto ries co uld have been filled production Bill says the ear lie r Valerie Drew sto ries , the authorship of which to asce rtain lat er . he hopes hat Reg rpri sing thing about this new inform ation is t The su ry writer. s never previous ly been known as a detective sto Kirkham ha th e girls' papers It is sad that the war came and closed down all new writing career. but one, probably st opping him fr om a whole out the war and the Only the GIRLS' CR YSTAL continued thro ugh her writer of humorou s resident detective story was ca rried on by anot wrote all the Noel fictio n, Ron ald Fleming, who as Peter Langley stories from 1935 to 1951. Raymond detective 1964). Reg Kirkham "retired from writing in 1940" (Brian Doyle,

By Ray Hopkins Page 29

ANOTHER 600 FOR MR. LISTER by Father Francis Willia m Lister always manages to grasp the attention. ln the July C.D. he asks HOW MANY WORDS WILL YOU READ IN 1987? The answer might surpr,is.e him! According to Toffler, Future Shock ( 1970), Americans are bombarded by 30,000 words a day. Ten million in 1987, Mr. Lister. A powerfu l instrument of mind con trol indeed - only by contact with the past can we have any chance of retaining a balanced and personal view . (The world of our old boys' papers is a splendid antidote .) Which brings me to another point, on which I'd be grat e ful for j.nformation from lovers of St. Frank's . Jim Cook refers to ' th is most famou s college in West Sussex'. Can readers confirm tha t this description of its county is a modern interpretation? As the divisions of Sussex , although centurie s old, were only for some purposes of local government, they were rarel y used as a c0unty name; as now but more so the county was generally simply ca11ed "Sussex". (Editor's Note: I seem to remember that when we lived in Horsham some 25 years ago, we always referred to it as tei ng in West Sussex, but that perhaps is 'modern '.) And , having bored everyone by being pedantic, may I give th e opportunity for readers to feel superior? I found Leslie Laskey' s YOUR EDITORS WERE CALLING YOU gripping. But naturally only the two major groups were considered, and those of th e Golden Age. To dare mention comics, latter-day 50s ones, and by tiddly publishers Hke L. Miller well that will brand me as a boundah! Hulton Press did a good job with Eagle, and that always had an editorial, a real per sonal chat. But Miller's Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel Junior, and ABC 's Captain Valiant/Space Comics did even better, th ey gave two editorials, and both a full page . (Actually one was from the editor, the other supposedly written by the hero of the comic .) So did DCMT Atlas in the early days of the Lone Star Magazine, a letter from the real-life Lone Star Rider himself. American comics (eve n more a shudder down spines no doubt) long gave two pages to editorial matter - the Post Offic e would only allow cheap posting for 'li te rary items' and comic strips didn't count; it had to be wedges of words . Originally they were a couple of pages of fiction (one Engli sh imitation , Ace High Western, even had stories by the real and gen-u-wine Frank Richards) but later it was found cheaper to allow readers to fill the pages with letters, and later still a bit of an editorial crept into most of them, and Page 30

continues t oda y. (Like the 'secre t code messages ' English imitat ions borrowed from the U.S.A. original s, and like much of the A.P. edit orials, these are u sually no mor e than tra iler s.) * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * , Jennings, COLLEX:TOR REQUIRES PRE-1960 CHILDREN' S 8CXJKS - Bunters , Williams - lsts and Biggles , Savilles , Eli nor Brent -Dye r, Els ie Oxenham , D. F. Bruce , Felix , Radio rewints in dustwrai;:pars . ANY PRE-1950 ANNUALS, E::Specially Fudge , in fact any Fun , , Dandy, Beano, Knockout , Japhet & Happy , Tiro in pre-1960 canic-rel ated annuals, also card games , badge s, etc . Also interested , O::>r Wullie , canics and story papers , especi al ly Beano and Dandy . Pre-1%5 Brcx:ms in dustwrappers , Dennis the Menace , Beryl the Peril. ENID BL~S pre - 1950 lsts Pre ·-war items sunny Stories magazine , pre-1960 strip books and Noddy items . , Kath l een particularly want ed . MO VIE/CAT BCX>KS IU.USTRATED by Allison Uttley Brett. RUPERT Hale (Orlando) , Racey Helps (Barnaby Li t tlem::iuse books) , Molly by Ma.:cy Tourtel ANNUALS Pre-1966 , any pre-war Rupert books/items illustrated ks and r elated or Alfred Besta ll. WALT DISNEY/ MICKEY MOUSE pr e- 1943 annuals/boo pre-1950 . i tems (toys , games , etc . ) SCHO'.)LGIRL.S ' o.vN annuals and libraries Pre-1960 Wisdens Any intact cut-out books (Puffins or simil ar ) , any Baby Puffins . edi tions - any oondition provided canp let e . P. G. Wodehouse lsts and pre~a:r: paid for fine in dustwr a ppers. Collections/singl e items _purchased . Top prices . copies (e . g . £100 plus , for pre-war Rupert Annua l s ) . sane exchanges available , Sus sex, BN7 Phone e venin gs 0273-477555 or write John Beel<_, 29 Mill Road , Lewes 2RU. * * * * * * * * * * • * * * * * • * * • * * * * * * * * * * * * * w • * • * * 1443 , 1444 , 1451 , 1456 , FOR SALE: Magnet No. 355 (El.30); Magnets 1392 , 1412 , Cheer No. 5 1491 , 1533; Penny Popular No. 21 ( 1919); Popular 442 ; Chee r Boys er oollectioo : (1912): all at BOp each . .Also the follow i ng , f ran the Bill Gand 1911 , and about slight l y rrore th an 50 copies of the Boys ' Realm between 1905 and ome? Chri stmas JO copies of the Boys ' Herald betwee n 1906 and 1909; inc lud ing s Blake , and Double Numbers , and sane instalments of Charl es Hamilton , Sexton st . Basil ' s; about 80 copies all told , all ti.ire worn (condition varies) but wonderful browsing and .reading mate rial for countless ev eni ngs: E30 the lot plus carriage . 1907 , bound in Also Pluc k Christnas Doubl e No. 19 1:'..l, £1. Pl uck. Chr is brlas No. Christmas Double prown paper cover s without or i ginal cov ers El.00 ; also Marv el No. 1907 (rough) 50p. Crookham , Rants. Postage extra on all i tems . Write ERIC FAYNE, 113 Crookham Road , ~ * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * lt helps the C.D. if reader s I advertise the ir WANTS and FOR YourEditor soys- SALE book and story -paper ite ms, .. -;-,.I I etc. in it. The rates are 4p per . word; a boxed, displayed a·d. costs £20.00 for a whole page, £10 for a half page or ,£5 for a quart er page. J _, ' * * * Page 31

From the EDITOR 011rsaitplane i1 farin1 in 4 "''"' Sq,,ar,, WONOf.Rhow s,,..., lhe World Championslup11 a l Lhit mo­ i.,,,wo,,. £.CA. 1 n>

m11 • I OWN -·,ous IHCDIE ',,. .•f• ...; '.. ~ ' - ' .. 1°1',"t FREE GlIT TO AIL NEW MEMBERS ..• Page 32

GREEN MEADOW BOOKS

lGnoulton • .Motts •• a;].2 JEJI. Tel. (0949) 81723

3 Weekly Paper Lists available - MAGNET, GEM, and assorted, including GIRLS' CRYSTAL, GIRL, EAGLE, SEXTON BLAKE, NELSON LEE, etc . etc. Regu lar Catalog ues issued including all favourites 20p stamp appr eciated, to above address Visitors welcomed to the Bookroom, by appointment

ACE is n0"1 in its tenth year of prov idin g infornation, ent:erta .i nment and nos talgia to al l collectors of canics and story-papers, cartoo n bcx:>ks, annua ls , and newspapers str i ps. As we ll as listing a ll c urren t and forth ccmi.ng canics and pub lication s of interest t o collectors, our recent iss ues have r anged fran Ally Sloper's 120th Birthdiay, to ' s historic se tt lement with D.C. Thanson over the J3ash Street Kids , by way of a deta iled checklist of all British contri ­ butio ns to MAD magazine . The 1987/88 subs cri ption i s E5 - e,xactly what it was it 1977' Edito r /pub li sher: Denis Gif ford, 80 Silve,rdale , Sydenham , SE26 4SJ .

BUY, SELL OR S~PS OLD BOYS' STORY PAPERS, C01ICS AND BCX)KS B(X)KS: Bunters , William , Bigg l es , Jennin gs , Henty, Brent - Dyer Oxenham, Magnet vol umes. CXMICS: Beano , Dandy , , Knocko ut Film-F un, Ra:Lnbc,,.,, etc . S'IDRY PAPERS : Magnet, Gero, s.C.L., Champie,n, Hotspur , Rover , Ski pper , Adventure, Wiz.ard , etc. ANNUALS: Holiday Annual, Tig er Tim, Ro.i nl:x::tw, Champion , Film-Fun , Radio Fun, Schoolg irl s'