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STORY PAPER COLLECTORS' DIGEST VOL . 54 No. 640 APRIL 2000 EASTER GREETINGS FROM YOUR EDITOR WONDER - EVERY t\.5rlil~iJ~ - I ,.. · i 1 , J. _ , d' >~ . r~_~~~· ~~ijl . , .l~ - ~ ~=--1~.r--~~- Sur, eoougb, 1111,did m•k c • ha.ah al h 1 'Jllc ,na.llet 1unffl.e t. 11..-.. ao IMM for ma, bee.UM •.INW to P'J •P fGr""I ... :;, 1~ 0H Ut,o buo inan'• tra--y. ~"='"'-~ii 't, • ncl een.t. t.bt wbole coUcc\i.oo l~ B11ti:Mucny .. the otlia lid. ~ft.be '.aoee.... the ta• y ~or! ": !U:'f~:~e~~.~ ,;:~·. .;.~: .~~;i!r,; :::m~r~'==~got»:~~:""-~:- ~~·1::.;..1 1 l!n"'!t...=: t,I ..w _ . ,.. - - _..,. ,. • - •·- • • " _ ,_,,,,,., r • , .._ •-• - - - ·- 2 STORY PAPER COLLECTORS' DIGEST Editor: MARY CADOGAN STORY PAPER COLLECTOR COLLECTORS' DIGEST Found ed in 1941 by Founded in 1946 by W.H.GANDER HERBER T LECKENBY S.P.C.D. Edit ed and Published 1959 - Janu ary 1987 by Eric Fayne VOL. 54 No. 640 APRIL 2000 PRICE£1 .50 As I write this editorial the sun is TheEditor's Chat shining, daffoclils in the garden are in their f uJI blaze of glory and Spring is even Jovelier than expec tations. This issue of the C.D. carries my good wishes to you all for a happy Easte r and for eve rything that this festival means in terms of life-giving renewal. Strangely perhaps. although the stories in our favou dte papers so often follow the seasons , I cannot recall many celebrated series with Easter themes. (Readers will now probably draw my attention to many such!) 1 am grateful to Reg Hardinge for sending me the 'Marmaduke and his Ma' Funny Wonder Easter episode whkb we have reproduced on page 2. I am glad to be able to report that I am now receivi ng more articles for Blakiana and the ESB sec tions of the C.D. However , it is always good to have pieces from a wide range of contributor s and I hope that some readers who have not written for us might be tempted to do so. Short features are always particularly welcome - possible, for example, items on 'My Favourite Character' or 'My favourite Story' in Hamilton ian, Blak ian, Brooks.ian and all other areas of our hobby. 3 Brjan Doyle feminded us last month that The Scout was tbe longest ever running boys paper, so I have used it for our cover this month. Do any readers have memorie s of this paper to share with us'? Happ y Easter browsing. MARY CADOGAN ******************************************************* THE LIFE THAT LED TO BUNTER by Una Hamilton Wright fo 1901, wben Cha rles celebraled his twentieth birthday, he was a short-s tory-writer much in demand. He wrote for boys, stirring tales of adventures at sea, stories of the Wild West and detective yams. 1901 was the year in which Queen Victoria died and her son Edward VII came t,o the throne . The Boer War was nearly at an end and an age of opu l.ence and expan:sion was ushered in. The brakes and restraints of the Victorian age finally came off. Charles Hamilton's upbringing and apprenticeship had been in the Victorian age. with its strict set of values and moral code. Charles matured as a writer just as more ljbera l ideas began to be accepted. The young had more freedom and women were establi srung a claim to be people. Charles always adhered to the Victorian moral code both in his life and in his writing, but he presented youth - of both sexes - in a freer contex t than would have been possible in the preceding generation. He did receive some help from an old contemporary - Baden Powell and his Boy Scout Movement widened boys ' horizons and ,gave youth a chance to develop new skills and the freedom to use them. They too were bound by the Victorian moral code and they learned to use freedom with discipline. It is interest ing that The Mab'Ilet and The Scout Movement both began in 1908! So what was Frank actually doing in 190 l , the year of this twenty-fi fth birthday ? He was still writing adventure stories for boys and very much in demand. On the 3 rd May, 1902, his earliest exlant school story was publi shed in BEST BUDGET by Anbur Pear son. At this time the younge r of his Dyson cous.ins were still at Oulwich College and be and his sister Dc1lly frequently visited them during the school holidays. The se four boys enjoye d their schoo ldays very much imd tl1eir enthusiasm for football as weU as for school itself no doubt impressed Charles. He took an interest in their schoo lwor.k and when any of them wrote poems or essays at schoo l they always showed them to Charles and asked for his opinion. For Charles had already earned the respect of his family as a writer. During these eaJrly Edwardian years, before the birth of the GEM and MAGNET in 1907 and 1908, Cha1rles was also writing for adult magazines such as the STRAND and the RED 1viAGAZiNlE. Wnen required,ne produced a iove story, bui he had no feeiing for this genre and though polished , his love stories appeared to be formally constructed rather than narrated. He also wrote light verse for publication and delighted in making up verba l puzzl es and, later, crosswo rd puzzles. It was a period when he expanded hls range of interests , new enthusiasms which remained with him permanently . 4 Charles' s homel ife had never been tranquil. One of a family of eight he came to treasure peace and qujer - commodities very hard to come by. When he was sixtee n his widowed mother bad moved (after frequent house moves all through bis childhood ) to Mill Hill Park:. Acton, West London where the family remained for eleven years, and it was here that Char les's writing life began. 11 was his mother 's favourite house and the family was happier in it than in any other of their J1omes. ln its leafy back garden Charles had enjoyed his rwentyfast Buthda y Party. In .the san1e year his young sister started LO attend the Royal Academy of Music to study singing and thus serious music was introduced to him. Songs from the music halls had been brought home by his brother Dick and they had sung them together but it was the fiJst time that the house had echoed to the strains of Grand Opera. Charles wa5 prospering . his writing had earned him a camera - he developed his own plates - and he bought himse lf a typew1iter. and bicycles for himself and sister Dolly. Meanwhil e Dick married and moved to Coventry and Charles would ~:..-111,u~1or4I CRlNIISEA·STORY BYCHAS. HAMILTON. rooBVBRY~ ,~,c~ ~ , ·mm : Liauff~bl ~-~Id British Boys! J, 5 cycle up there to sec! him and they had seve ral cycling holiday s together. Charles loved the exe rc ise and the: fresh air as an antidote to sitting Lndoors writing. He believed in having a second stri ng to bis bow and durin g this pre-MAGNET period he attended art classes at a London Art School studying black and white illustration. He did occasjonalJy get drawings accepted for publication . Lang uages came to his attention during this period. His sister introduced him to an elder ly lady living nearby who was proficient in Italian and French and also Latin . Brother and sister learned ltalian which was essential for Dolly' s singing studies . Charles also co nfid ed his love of the Latin language to the kind friend who was delighted to read the classic s with him and discuss the philosophy involved. But such idyllic. happiness ilid not last Jong unbroken: in 1902, Charles's younger brother , Douglas, di,ed of tuberculosis . It developed very suddenly and the family reeled under the shock. It is part icularly poignant that Dougla s contributed a certain foppishn ess to the character of Art hur Augustus Darcy , and also the languid calm of the puzzle solv ing abiliti es of Lord Mauleverer. Douglas was also hard of hearing, a trait inherited by Tom Du non of the Grey friars Remove. Charles could not bear to continue living in the hou se after his brother 's death and he persuaded his mother to move, this time 10 a larger hou se in Chi swick 1near Kew Bridge. Nearly two years later his mother manied again , only to be widowed the following year. Charles and Dolly had to find somewhere to live! She entered a boarding house run for students of the Royal Academy of Music in Upper Baker Street while Charles found various dig s and stayed with this two elder brothers either in Coventry or in Essex. Finally , Cha rles and Doll y decid ed to get a flat together and in early 1907 they moved to 7 Dorse t Squar e, jus.t near Baker Street. 1 believe the building subsequently was to house the Chevr on Club . ff was in this flat that the GEM and the MAGNET were born. Eighteen month s later they mQved to a larger tlat in Hamp stead, Antrim Mansions, and stayed there until Dolly married in I 91 I. In the summer of 1908 Charles bought h.is first property , a bungalow on Canvey Island, near to the home of bis cider brother Alex. He enjoyed holidays there, playin g with Alex's young children.