THJE STORY lAlJER JANUARY 1964 COJLJLJECTO\n� No. 85 :: Vol. 4
and the strength of a mighty Hero Worship Samson! The "fourth dimension" ven When Young triloquism pandered to a sense of fun. What frolics I could HERE rs a certain fascination have had with the adults (my in probing into the real-life natural, if undeclared, enemies) T story of a hero, despite the running around in circles! Even feeling of "[ shouldn't be if my ventriloquial "hero" was doing this!" So many heroes are as obtuse as Billy Bunter, he found to have feet of clay, upon was still coovincing because I closer inspection, and are found wanted to believe, and belief is, to be oh! so human. after all, one of the basic planks My juvenile reading matter in all platforms. had no place for frail humans. I wanted to read about super BELIEVED in Greyfriars and men, or superboys. The strong I St. Jim's and passed through boy, the boy who could make the phase at one time of ac himself invisible, the boy ven cepting the school characters as triloquist, the boy who could real boys. What reader of those fly-these were my.fundamental papers, The Magnet and The Qem, heroes, because youth is given to has not at some time searched day-dreams, dreams in which a large-scale map for Courtfield one is the central figure. or Rylcombe? Human nature being basically If I had not believed in tf,ese good, what good deeds I could things, my juvenile reading have done to help frail and would have "passed me by like suffering humanity; what evil the idle wind" and would never could have been eliminated have been remembered in my throughout the world (and the middle age. space beyond!) if only, as a boy Another type of hero was the of twelve, I could have had the one who, despite human limita powers of flight, of invisibility, tions, could entrance by the
.. 180 THE STORY PAPER COLLE TOR glamour of colourful costume in of Blacl THE LOWER BRANCHES By TOM HOPPERTON E HAVE OF LATE had accepted by H. A. Hinton or our attention so con C. M. Down between 1920 and W centrated on John Nix late 1924, while his last Gem was Pentelow as the Wicked not till 1926. Uncle of The Hamilton Babe in He seems therefore to have the Wood that we have rather had no dispute with the suc lost sight of his considerable ceeding editors, and his troubles ·achievements in other fields. with Frank Richards did not There is obviously a great deal affect his status with the Amal to be said on that subject which gamated Press. When Hinton has not yet reached print, but returned from the Army in 1919 this present series is not the to resume control of the Com place for it. Pentelow himself panion Papers, Pentelow was would be surprised to find so switched to reviving the sus much attention being paid -to pended Boys' Realm, and he fol what he must have regarded as lowed this by launching The a fleeting and unimportant part Prairie Library, The Robin Hood of his career. Library, and Sport and Adventure, He wrote in all about 132 Gems all of which took him further and Magnets, and his work here away from the school story. has received plenty of comment As far as his actual writing is but very little connected consi concerned, the thing for which deration. It should not be over he was most hotly criticised was looked that it was not just shoved his killing-off of Richards' lead in when Pen�low was editor ing Sixth-former, Courtney. Mr. and so able to do as he pleased. G. R. Samways, who is one of He wrote at least 69 Magnet tales the few people in a position to and practically half of them-34 know, informed us in S. P. C. that to be exact-were certainly pro Pentelow was not an indepen duced after he quitted the chair dent agent in this: he acted un and were either commissioned or der higher directive to simplify lllllllllHlll111Hllll/1111llllllllllllllllllQlllllll[]lllllllllllltJmlllWJlmm11111111m11111111111r1pARTTHREE 11111111111i1l1llllllnl\IKJlllmllUllt:.JUlllllllll(lllllU!Umt1111�1111111r11m111111111m111111mtr 182 THE STORY PAPER COLLECTOR matters for readers who had and sim/)/e, bu t as I don't want been writing to complain of the to precipitate another semantic confusions caused by Courtney debate we can compromise with and Courtenay. This is one of Pentelow as Pentelow. the most surprising things I have Like so many of the Amal heard of in connection with gamated Press authors, he began boys' weeklies. One would have as something of a boy wonder, thought that boys who hadn't and he was only fifteen when the savvy to distinguish between he started contributing serials a Greyfriars senior and a High and long-completes of a highly cliffe junior, whose names were dramatic nature to Guy Rayner's not even spelt alike, would weeklies under such titles as hardly have had the initiative to Captain Nemesis and Vanoc; or, grumble to the editor about it. The Gladiators of Old Rome. He When, in the fullness of time, drifted casually into the occa these muddled Magnetites came sional school story and does not to read that remarkable Cana· appear to have made any sus dian classic The Awful Disclosures tained effort with them until he of Maria Monk and found that became a regular in Pluck. His the villainous priest who seduced most concentrated spell was the much-harassed Maria was during his Magnet days, and Fr. Richards, I hope they appre once that compulsion was re ciated that the "Fr." was an moved he reverted to being abbreviation of "Father" and something of a jack-of-all-trades, not of "Frank." Unfortunately, writing anything on demand they already had it on the and indifferent to whether his authority of The Boys' Friend that action was sited in Tex as, Sher Frank had been educated in wood Forest, or Lords Cricket Canada, and I fear that they Ground. went through life suspecting the There is no doubt about his worst. popularity. The A. P. reprinted no less than 56 of his serials in T rs NOW perhaps inevitable the 1st Series of The Boys' Friend I that the original writer will Library, and he was only out be subordinated to the stop scored by Clarke Hook with 66 gap substitute, but even to un and David Goodwin with 64. derstand Pentelow as an imita Pentelow shared this high tion Frank Richards it is still opinion of his literary ability necessary to consider Pentelow and he had no inhibitions as an --I nearly said Pentelow pure editor. Confident of improve- THE LOWER BRANCHES 183 ment, he would most likely have series which ran for years and meddled with the text of the were popular reprints. Even so, Ten Commandments if he had it is now impossible for an adult been on hand when the MS. to read them without mixed was delivered, but as he wasn't feelings. he had to content himself with The thing that hits one almost re-writing bits of his contribu at once is that there is a re tors' efforts and interpolating markably contrived air about his pieces of his own to add tone work. Coincidence worked dou to them. He even cobbled some ble shifts for the A. P. and most of Richards' stories in this way, authors were bashful enough to and it is perhaps regrettable try to gloss it over. Pentelow did that there is no instance on not bother much with such aids record of Frank expressing his to painlessness as softening the gratitude for t:ie unsolicited impact with pre-corroboration: embellishments. if he had a coincidence to inflict This comes out in his Qem he just sandbagged the reader be and Magnet stories. My own hind the ear with it and plunged feeling is that he wrote among on with the story. the best substitute stories, while The entire effectiveness of the being far from the best ersatz long run of Jack Jackson at Frank Richards. He wore his Wycliffe tales hinged upon the rue with a difference. Stanley opening incident that on the first Austin and Francis Warwick, day of term four new boys-one for example, made careful at specimen from each of England, tempts to produce facsimiles of Wales, Scotland, and lreland Frank's work. They used his meet at the railway station and favourite quotations and allu immediately contract a lifelong sions and paid strict attention friendship. The machinery creaks to his technical tricks. Pen most horribly, and one does not telow's self-esteem, I take it, require a crystal ball to foretell prevente� him from following the developments. this stringent path. He did not The speech follows suit. If a so much imitate Richards as stretch of Richards' dialogue is write about the same characters. read aloud it flows smoothly off the tongue and falls within the HILE PENTELOW created a conversational norm. Pentelow number of schools, his strove after a lifelike casualness W reputation stands mainly and achieved disjointed involve on the Wycliffe and Haygarth ments which trip the tongue. It 184 THE STORY PAPER COLLECTOR passes muster when read silently were far from giddy-in fact but no-one could speak it easily. they were the heroes of the He adds an unnecessary dis tales-and it seems a needless trac'.tion. One of David Good disparagement until the reader win's elegants reprimanded an eventually stumbles across the other for dropping his final g's far-fetched reason. Mr. Williams with: "We used to do it, but is nicknamed Big Billy. every outsider caught on, so we don't do it now." Richards' HERE WAS A WELL of effusive swells refused to be stampeded Tsentimentality in Pentelow by lower-class imitation and car which was easily tapped. ried on dropping, while Pente One can imagine Richards shy low took the process a stage ing away from titles like Kildare further. His heroes dropped both of the Great Heart, For the Old g's and d's, so that his pages School's Sake, and The Heart of a are littered with sentences like: Hero. When he had to traverse "An' I was kickin' it." He pre similar ground he used the more sumably thought this attrac'.tive restrained Kildare for St. Jim's, and an accurate transcript of For His School's Sake, and The public school speech, ignoring Hero of St. Jim's. Pentelow ful the defec'.ts that the pages are filled the promise of his titles: pocked with the marks of elision Richards' economy of feeling in and that the dialogue looks as near-sentimental passages was slovenly as it must have sounded. beyond him. He gushed. Even Nor did he ever explain why his boys were given to address it was classy to omit final con ing each other with mawkish sonants when to drop h's was an affec'.tion in moments of stress, unspeakable social crime. and in some of his more. heart This air of contrivance ex felt substitute stories it is sur tends to his jokes; He imports prising how this one factor odd names so that he can make softens the crisp outlines of puns on them, as with his House Richards' ch arac'.ters. master, Mr. Gazman alias the One inevitable extension of Gasman. It is easy to see why this was that Pentelow was a Smythe, Peele and Co., the smart moralist. Neville Cardus spoke set at Rookwood, are called for boys in general when he said the Giddy Goats. Pentelow con that he objeeted to all improving trived that the members of Mr. stories on principle, but Pente Williams' House at Wycliffe low never hesitated to halt the were known as the Goats. They proceedings while he delivered THE LOWER BRANCHES 185 wise saws, modern instances, and that age that I just don't know. short lectures on ethics. He At this moment, it looks to could not feel certain of the me like an unnecessary piece of effectiveness of indirect condem rhetoric. Alice was right when nation of the decalogue of she asked what was the use of a juvenile sins through the words story without conversations. If and actions of the "goodies" and Dangerfield had been allowed the routing of the "baddies." To to explain himself through his reinforce the lesson, he mounted own words and actions, with his portable pulpit and adminis further light shed by the re tered his moral much as Mr. marks and reactions of the rest Wackford Squeers did his brim of the cast, the story would have stone-and-treacle. The victim gone on with greater artistic was seized by the scruff of the effect and satisfaction. neck and the nauseous dose ladled down his throat. HIS IS a formidable list of Then, he would meddle with T complaints, and it is only his characters' progress, grabbing fair to say that they are them by the seat of the britches adult judgments. When [ was a and giving them the bum's rush boy I lapped up Jack North along their destined path. Con with avidity and I swallowed sider this typical quotation: indiscriminately everything in both Gem and Magnet during Dangerfield had chosen his path. He knew it was the wrong one, and the entire term of Pentelow's he was manful enough to admit it. editorship. When re-reading the stories I frequently find that But he would hold to it, chin up, pieces of Pentelow have stuck proud with the pride of Lucifer, fal len Son of the Morning, perhaps not in my memory when genuine understanding himself, certainly not stories have faded completely. understood by the meaner spirits he Pentelow's defects, in which there is an almost feminine chose for comrades. He was as one: "Having light, loving darkness quality, do not loom so large when considered only as part rather." And yet-did he love it? of his original work. They are Did he not hate it, even while choosing it. dwarfed by the sweep of his imagination and the general This may have been fine vigour of his tales. He used writing to Pentelow: it may even much larger and more varied be fine writing to a fourteen casts than the aver age serialist, year-old. It is so long since I was and he manipulated them 186 THE STORY PAPER COLLECTOR adroitly in c�mplexly-woven to achieve the transformation. plots. The mam reason for We are emphatic enough stressing them so much is that about the worsening now, and they take on greater impor it must have had some effect on tance when contemplating his the readership then. What we substitute stories. He carried all do not know is the exact or his old traits into the new field, even the approximate degre e. If where they sometimes sat oddly anyone has a few tame thirteen on the shoulders of the original year-olds on hand it would be cast. This certainly led to a an interesting experiment to deterioration in the stories. feed them for a few weeks on Even when an effort is made a mixed diet of Pentelow and it is impossible for one man Richards and then have them to assume completely the report on their reactions. I have thoughts and professional skills a suspicion that we oldsters of another, and Pentelow did might be surprised. not exactly strain hi mself Part Four Will Appear In Number 86 books," Annuals, and others of Young 0. B. B. Collectors the Charles Hamilton bound books. Apart from these, they EFERRING TO the item by Mr. have thousands of copies of the 0. W. Wadham about a R modern Libraries. young collector of old boys' In one of the. Annuals Alex books (S.P.C. Number 83 ) there has a personal message from are two other very young ones. "Frank Richards,''. written a They are Alex and Helga Baker, short time before Charles Hamil the son and daughter of Mr. ton's death. In it, Mr. Hamilton W. Howard Baker, who was the gave some advice on starting at Editor of Sexton Blake Library in a new school. its final years and author of Helga writes Greyfriars pas stories of Sexton Blake. tiches, and very good they are, Alex and Helga are 13 and 11 too. There are hopes of her years of age and are avid readers developing her writing ability of The Magnet. Between them and following in the footsteps they have a collection com of her well-known father, who prising the last five years of The was a keen Greyfriars reader in Magnet and all of the "Bunter his youth. -W. 0. G. LOFTS " PICTURES OR PROSE? By MAURICE KUTNER ANY OF us who are in fallen into decay through the terested in old boys', or evils of affluence and its atten M girls', publications may dant indisposition to activity, be more interested in but we had no fe ar of such a collecting, and reading about, the fate overtaking us, and many an precious story papers of our own unpleasant chore was performed youth than in the publications before the necessary penny was which appear weekly on the ours. bookstalls today. It has been said (and perhaps Our Magnets, Gems, and the has always been said) that the rest, are like the tuneful songs of youth of today have too much yesteryear with all the pleasant spending-money for their own youthful memories of happy good. As the juke-boxes spew hours which they recall. It is out their "top-twenties" like a perhaps natural for the ear sickness in a sick world, the attuned to lilting melodies to lover of the good old-fashioned classify the dreary stridor of ballad might find it an interest a modern "pop number" as ing, and even profitable,pastime rubbish. to attempt to investigate the The world of our youth was fascination which these fl eeting the best of all. possible worlds, "pops " have for the youthful we say, with very little spending musical ear. Even more impor money and pennies hard to tant to us of our hobby, to look come by. It can be said, too, for some enlightenment, over that this perpetual state of the shoulders of the youngsters, penury was good for us, and to see what they are reading to that sufh inconveniences were day. As they would probably character-forming, creating with strongly object to us breathing in us the initiative to obtain, asthmatically down their necks, honestly, the much-needed pen let us instead browse among the ny which, obtained, we plonked bookstalls and newsagents'. down on the counter of our The weeklies are there, spread local newsagent for the current out on display, bright in colour number of one of our favourite and mostly on good quality weeklies. Great nations have paper. On checking the names 187 188 THE STORY PAPER COLLECTOR of the publishers it would ap of drawings of a pretty, but dis pear that the greatest number consolate, girl with the thoughts are from D. C. Thomson, with ballooning out of her pretty Fleetway Publications in second little head in a series of bubbles: place and Odhams Press third. firstly, "I'm twenty-one tomor row, but instead of feeling TORY-AND-PICTURE papers of happy, I feel awful !"; secondly, our youth such as Film Fun "Look at me, nearly twenty-one, S and Radio Fun, with their but I haven't even been steady weekly adventures of Harold with a boy yet!"; thirdly, "I'm Lloyd, Fatty Arbuckle, and Ben going to be left on the shelf Turpin, are no more. They soon if I'm not careful!" te !ls have given way to T. V. Comic one it is time to put the book where television children's-hour down quickly and breathe deeply favourites are depicted, along for a few moments to disperse with some adult viewing-time the cold-water-on-the-spine, be stars whom we had often sus fore returning to the world of pected as being fit only for in sanity in our search for real boy fants: T. V. Comic confirms our and girl periodicals. suspicions. The action is carried on by words ballooning out of DHAMS P RESS issue such the characters' mouths. papers as Eagle and Boys' The Americans, too, dip their O World, which have their bread in this gravy with such thrills of sp ace-men, pre-historic weeklies as Huckleberry Hound and modern monsters, modern and Yogi Bear's Own. The child detectives, war-time battles, gla first meets the character via the diators and men of ancient television set,becomes intrigued, Rome, palefaces- and Redskins, and is tempted to buy the all in pictures and, what's more, weekly, as many an adult, seeing historical anecdotes, sporting an epic film based on an old articles-and a two-page story established classic, has been en in "real writing"! Diagrams ticed to read the original book are also given of anything for the first time. from an atomic submarine to a One cannot always tell by the locomotive. covers on the ·bookstall whether Among the Fleetway weeklies one has picked up the type of are School Friend, June, and Prin weekly one has in mind. There cess for girls, Lion, Tiger, Valiant, are a number with such titles as and Buster for boys. The girlish Girl, and Boyfriend, but a series adventures in School Friend are .. PICTURES OR PROSE? 189 made more palatable to us in to animal and bird wild life. particular by a two-page spread Another girls' publication is of Bessie Bunter, not forgetting Judy which must have a big sale, her dear brother William. In as must also one more called this series Mr. Quelch is brought Bunty, as the publishers issue a in, along with "Jones minor," a 64-page picture-packed edition character borrowed from the of each at a shilling, and a sum Billy Bunter series in the old mer number of Bunty at one Knockout, now incorporated in shilling and sixpence. Valiant. Valiant is practically all Perhaps the D. C. Thomson pictures, depicting the adven boys' weeklies are of more in tures of strong fearless men, but terest to us. Among their pic of most interest to us are the ture-comics, mostly in colours, two pages devoted to Billy Bun are The Beano and The Dandy, ter, billed as the heavyweight both of which have been pub chump of Greyfriars, with Mr. lished for over twenty years, Quelch and "Jones minor" in The Beezer and The Topper. The the supporting roles. Victor and The New Hotspur are The old Film Fun is now in composed mainly of pid:ure corporated in the all-picture Bus stories, from the heroic to the ter, where adventure "stories" comic. Being products of the last are intermixed with the galli two to four years, one must vanting gaiety of some television assume them to be the type of stars. weekly the modern boy wants. They contain quite an assort T WOULD APPEAR from obser ment, "stories" of bushrangers I vations at various bookstalls and horses, desperate missions that the larger group of boy behind the enemy lines in and girl weeklies comes from World War II, Morgyn the D. C. Thomson & Co., Ltd. They Mighty, space capsules and astro burst ihto the juvenile market nauts, the wild and woolly wit Adventure 42 years ago and West, Hereward the Wake and are still going strong. Of their Norman England, and adven weeklies for girls Diana, with its tures with wolves in Northern pages of drawings, mostly in Canada. colour, has at present a couple The most important paper of of items one doesn't usually this group is surely The Wizard, associate with a girls' weekly: plodding along now for nearly the serialisation of Shakespeare's forty years. It contains no pic Macbeth and a page devoted ture-"stories" whatsoever, being 190 THE STORY PAPER COLLECTOR - wonder of wonders! -com sport has always been given its posed entirely of stories in "real fair share of space. This con writing." No story, or episode of tinues to be the case today, but any serial, is longer than five with the addition of first-rate pages, which necessitates fairly photographs. good prose, exciting and to the Each of the big publishers point, while character-building, has at least one paper which, although terse, is expertly done. along with the usual type Some themes of these storie� of stories, gives the reader a deal with the lawless West of series of backgrounds to travel, the last century (a "must" for science, and history, and the boys), a Spitfire squadron over serialisation of well-established Northern France in the last war, classics, though often depicted Rugby League football, and air· in pictures. liner crash survivors on an ice. Some non-fiction and classical field in the Arctic Ocean, while items are: Boys' World (Odhams) the front and back cover pages -Having Fun With Science, The give bits of information ranging Story of the Colt .45, and Under from treks across frozen wastes the Polar Ice With "Nautilus"; and burning deserts to facts Diana (D. C. Thomson) - Mac about the Royal Horse Guards, beth, History of �een Victoria, with regimental badge. and Homecraft; Princess (Fleet· way Publications)-Gir!sofTokyo . . FAIR PROPORTION of edi tors (travel), I Will Repay, by Baron· A keep in touch wi th the ir ess Orczy, and The History of readers by offering small Mary, the Tragic �een, from prizes for the best letters on birth to the scaffold. hobbies and experiences and the like, and some weeklies have T HAS SOMETIMES been sug· formed readers' clubs, complete I gested that the young reader with club badge. of today has been given a Editors, generally, appear to raw deal by the publishers. have a strong sense of respon Looking over the modern book· sibility towards their young stalls fills one with the cer· readers, presenting a quota of tainty that the publishers do encyclopaedic knowledge, sugar· fairly well in that most difficult ing the pill somewhat, given in of tasks, pleasing, interesting, an interesting manner which and trying to educate (in the must appeal to the bright child. wider sense of the word) the In the history of boys' papers modern child. .. MUDDLED MAGNETITES! 191 Today's young reader may be greater or less on that account? unfortunate in growing up in a What is certain is that the world where Damocles' sword bookstalls are full, catering for hangs threateningly ever by a all tastes, and apparently they thread. However, he is more have good sales. If, as is popu fortunate in his periodicals, with larly supposed, the young 'uns of their excellent paper and colour today have too much spending printing, than those of us who money, it is a certainty that they lived our "purple period" in an are spending a fair proportion of age of war, shortage of paper it in the best possible way. (poor quality at that}, and such � small letterpress that it is a wonder we still have enough Muddled Magnetites ! light left in our poor maltreated eyes to enjoy them. HINKING ABOUT those mud Perhaps because the pace of T dled Magnetites who could life has quickened to such a not distinguish between degree since our day, the young Arthur Courtney, the Greyfriars 'uns have no time to wend a Sixth-former, and Frank Cour weary way through pages of tenay, the Highcliffe Fourth-for descriptive matter, and require mer, but who still had the savvy the essentials-quickly! Grow to write to the Editor about it ing up with films and television (see page 182): we may presume must make pietures a kind of that they were not readers of natural language, and publishers, The Gem. being business-men, are entitled If they had been, they would to meet what they think are the have written to the Editor telling customers' needs. him how much they were con fused by Harry Wootton of ICTURES OR PROSE? A statis Rylcombe Grammar School P tical report by the librarian having a name that was too of the children's seetion of similar to that of Harry Wharton many a loca� public library might of Greyfriars. not agree with the publishers, Especially should they have but what is the ideal to be been confused when the Goggs, striven for? The advocates of Grammarian serial commenced in prose must not forget that The The Magnet early in 1919, fea Wizard has no pieture-stories turing as it did, along with and caters for the "reader"; Johnny Goggs and others, Harry are the sales of The Wizard and Jack Wootton. + A COLLECTOR YARNS ABOUT YARNS IN THE CAPTAIN By RON GALLOWAY LONG TIME AGO, away back comparable even with the on a fine warm Saturday mighty Boy's Own Paper, then in A in 19 17, I had my first in its heyday. One of the copies troduction to that excel formed part of Volume 34, for lent boys' magazine, The Captain. the year 1916. I was a teenager at the time, working in a corn-merchant's HE MAIN ADVENTURE serial office in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, T was Wreck Cove, by W. and we did not finish work Bourne Cook. This is a until 4 p.m. on Saturdays. On strangely compelling story, even my way home, I glanced at the today, with a mystic phantasy nearby Bigg Market stalls, where all its own. Some of the strange traders displayed a miscellany of doings take place in a lonely goods for sale to a jostling crowd Cornish cove during the 18th of bargain-hunters. cen tury. Young Dick Raven is Two of the stalls were ex the central character, with the clusively devoted to the sale tang of the sea in his blood. His of secondhand magazines and father is dead and he lives with novels. One belonged to an old his mother and his grandfather, chap known as French, and the old Melchior Raven, in a lonely other to an elderly man, with a cliff-top house. Melchior has limp, whose name escapes me his study rigged out as a ship's now. On this latter stall I saw cabin. three copies of The Captain for One day Dick meets by the sale at, I think it was, half price, sea-shore an old sea-dog named threepence each. Captain Blunt, whose purpose is I was captivated by the colour to seek out Dick's grandfather, ful front covers and bought all who holds the key to a vast three copies. They were taken treasure overseas. Dick's curios home and read avidly, and it ity lands him in the power of did not take me long to realise one of Blunt's henchmen, Aaron that I had stumbled on extreme Windghast, who has converted ly high class boys' literature, an eerie cove on the shore into 192 .. YARNS IN THE CAPTAIN 193 fairly habitable living quarters. time alongside Chums Annual, Strange and weird doings en Boy's Own Annual, Young Eng· sue, involving the eye of an idol land, and the others. and a voyage overseas in a craft . There was, unfortunately, chartered by Melchior Raven. never a super abundance of The party have a final and money in those days and it was thrilling showdown with the not until the 1920's that I rascal Blunt and his cut-throat was able to buy my first volume, crew. secondhand, of course. It was I consider this to be Cook's Volume 28, year 1913, and it best serial, although some years would surely have been diffi ago a fellow-collector said l ought cult to find any volume more to reserve judgment until I had crammed with literature to stir read the same author's story, The the boyish heart. All three of the Black Box, which appeared in serials, one adventure and two The Captain several years earlier. school, were top-class. Later, I was able to obtain the volume· and read this story, AX RrrrENBERG produced which dealt with the Monmouth M a school gem in The Coc· Rebe llion. katoo, a nickname for Tod It, too, was a stirring story, and MacLean, son of a wealthy New its historical background would Zealand sheep farmer. Tod is probably lead many readers to sent to Whiterock, an English class it above Wreck Cove, but I public school, for his education. still consider the vein of weird "Blue blood" flows in the veins mystery in the latter story to be of nearly all the pupils and Tod more than compensating. is regarded as an outsider just While Coo k was not a prolific because his blood happens to be author, he did in later years write an ordinary shade of crimson. a serial for Chums under the title After all kinds of vicissitudes of The Cjrey Owl which was, and trials, Tod's natural courage however, a ale shadow of his triumphs over snobbery. serials in The Captain. That skilful purveyor of school The bound volumes of The stories, Percy F. Westerman, pro Captain in their striking maroon vided an excellent example in coloured covers with the school The Stolen Cruiser. Da Silva, a Captain embossed theron in gold foreign rascal, and his gang had always fascinated me as they of cut-throats actually accom took their places in the book plish the unprecedented feat of sellers' windows at Christmas- capturing a British cruiser lying 194 THE STORY PAPER COLLECTOR in the Solent and sailing her number of serio-comic episodes away. High-seas piracy is their manages to frustrate his plans. object, but Nemesis eventually Eventually the parents of the overtakes them in Antarctic boy turn up at the school and, waters. on the principle of "set a thief to catch a thief," the would-be HE LAST SERIAL was from the kidnapper is offered the post T pen of the inimitable P. G. of guardian at worthwhile pay, Wodehouse, the title being to put an end to the costly The Eighteen Carat Kid. This is incidents. The whole story is a story of the young son of superbly readable and great fun, an American multi-millionaire, and well up to the standard of Cyrus P. Bullmeyer (or some this gifted writer. such name as that). The father - .. A MIXED LOT 195 Corrections to Presenting PQt-Pourri: 4 Under the Title of . Where Charles Hamilton Went to School A MIXED LOT "Bunter Beds" at School N NUMBER 84 of The Story Paper I Collector, in my article Where HE FURTHER information Charles Hamilton Went to T about Bunter Beds (in S.P.C. School, I stated that he had at Number 83) took me back tended Ealing British School fo r more than thirty years. About a short time. This was written five miles from here is a local in good fa ith and was based on beauty spot called Clent Hill, the fact Mr. Hamilton had once and a master at school told us stated that his first school was that the Clent soil was a mixture next door to where he lived. of marl and sandstone. I have since been told by Mrs. 1 recall, as if it were yesterday, Una Hamilton Wright that this his talking about "Bunter marl is incorrect and l now wish and Bunter sandstone, and Keu to make it clear that Charles per marl and Keuper sandstone." Hamilton never attended a I have, however, never heard of Board or state school. The name Muschelkalk. of his actual first school will 1 enjoyed very much your be revealed by Mrs. Wright article, Colleeting Old Boys' Books: when her Biography of Charles Not "A New Craze." At the end Hamilton appears. you write, "I seem to have wan In my references to Mrs. Una dered rather more than was Harrison, the sister of Charles necessary." My comment is, go · Hamilton, there are two small on wandering as much as yon errors in transcription: Mrs. like if you continue to write so Harrison actually attended the fascinatingly. -T. w. PORTER Roy�,! Academy of Music in Old Hill, Staffs. London, for eight years, and she * * became a Teacher of Voice Pro duction and Singing. She was That Word on Page 186 never a governess, but she was, IN TH'> SHORT ITEM on page 186, on account of poor eyesight Two Young 0. B. B. Collectors, we in childhood, brought up by a were guilty, when re-writing it governess. from a letter, of us ing a word -W. 0. G. Lorrs that may be strange to some of 196 THE STORY PAPER COLLECTOR our readers. It would have been command a ready sale and two strange, indeed probably quite of them, at least, are mentioned unknown, to us if we were not in Mrs. Margery Fisher's book: a reader of the two magazines Antonia Forest and William that are devoted to Sherlockiana Mayne. There is also a mention and the study of the stories of of these two writers in Brian Sherlock Holmes, The Sherlock Doyle's article, Arch-Fossil-Bicy Holmes Journal and The Baker cle Pump Product, in the Novem· Street Journal. ber, 1961, issue of The Collectors' There have been quite a lot Digest, which dealt largely with of imitation Sherlock Holmes Mrs. Fisher's book. stories written, and they are re· William Mayne's books are ferred to as pastiches. In the about a choir school and he has Universal English Dictionary a produced quite a number for the pastiche is A literary work written Oxford University Press. Per in imitation of the style of another sonally, and especially as so many author. (There is another defini collectors are interested in the tion which does not concern us school story, I would like to see here.) Pronunciation: pasteesh. every encouragement given to If any of our readers had to Mr. Mayne and Antonia Forest go to their dictionaries to find for their efforts to keep the flag what the word means-as we flying, and I would like Mr. had to do the first time we met Hopperton to produce an article it-we extend to them our regret on their work. for venturing beyond our proper It would be very interesting, vocabulary level. for instance, to ascertain where "Our" meaning ourself. they obtained their inspiration from-did they read Charles * * * Hamilton as children, for exam School Stories Today ple. . . I am certain that Mr. Hopperton would make a very I WAS PARTICULARLY interested in fine article of such material. Tom Hopperton's remarks (The - w. J. A. HUBBARD Lower Branches, Part 1, S. P. C. Nyeri, Kenya. Number 83) upon publishers * * * and present-day school stories. The Day Inflation Began There is certainly a kick in the "fossil," for there are a number B ACK NUMBERS WANTED-By G. of present-day writers of school E. Gittins, Stourport. -Magnet, stories whose work seems to Nos. 1-360; Gem, Nos. 1-370; A MIXED LOT 197 Boys' Friend, Nos. 1-790. Half Water Lily series, which is an penny each offered.--By H. other favourite. Taylor, Upper Parkstone, Dorset. This account of writing to -Magnet, Nos. 1-400. Double addresses, some years after the price offered; 4d. each for first advertisements had been pub ten. lished, in the hope that the -Quoted from Readers' Notices column persons might still be there in The Magnet, Number 480, April 21st, Magnets 1917. and still have some is, * * * I think, proof that hope springs eternal ! -MAURICE HALL Hope Springs Eternal ! Worcester Park, Surrey. * * * THE ARTICLE IN S. P. C. Number 83, Colleding Old Boys' Bool ..