Sunday, February 10, 2008

Schoolgirls Own Annual

More from my recent photoshoot of annuals covers, this time covering The Schoolgirls' Own Annual. This is a complete run of the title. The first has the Amalgamated Press's 'file copy' sticker on it, as do a couple of the scarce wartime issues so if anyone has decent scans of these sans stickers they would be welcome. Update: Thanks to Alistair McGown I've been able to tinker with the first volume and patched over the sticker.

The main artists were A. E. Bestall (better known as the illustrator of Rupert the Bear) (1923-28) and Tom Laidler (1930-35). Not sure who painted the other covers.

(* Illustrations © IPC Media.)

6 comments:

  1. Great books, i have the 1927 one and it has some great adventure and mystery stories. Though the writers of girl's papers of the time could get away with extreme laziness if they wanted, by having the main character faint when they couldnt come up with a decent ending, and then have her wake up at home with everyone going "Wow, good thing we got out of that one!" and offering some vague explination about a policeman happening upon the villains suddenly or something

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  2. Wow absolutely fabulous to be able to view all these comic covers and bring back tons of nostalgia. I read some as a very very young girl then the issues were already old. Recently I have been digging here and there in the internet hoping someone somewhere in this world (am from Malaysia) could post anything from these comics for me to be reconnected. This is unbelievable. There is someone. Thanks so much. Wish I can own all of these annuals shown. Will be real wow wow wow. Wishful thinking.....

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  3. Great collection of vintage schoolgirl book covers... Thank you.

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  4. When I was clearing out my late great aunts'things, I saw copies of Schoolgirls'own annual 1923-6 and flicked through them and was very amused by the amazing array of stories and fell for the Morcove Stories. I soon was turning off the television and read a chapter or so of the stories to pass the time. brilliant to see a web page set-up about these marvallous books. thank you.

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  5. Thank you for the images of the front covers. I purchased a copy in poor condition and read it. I am in the process of obtaining other copies. In the age of computers, it is nice to see how children passed their free time before the invention of the television.

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  6. With ever increasing technology entering our lives each day, it pays to pause and consider how did grandma spend her time when the chores were over for the day, her dad was listening to his (crystal) radio, her mum cooking another batch of biscuits or a cake and brother was playing with his Meccano. Thank you for the memories of seeing those cover of annuals now slowly fading away from memory.

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