In this first selection, Chris Harte has chosen from the magazine's full history, the earliest from April 1936 ('Travelling Third Class' by Negley Farson), the last from July 1962 ('A Wine Tasting' by Cyril Kersh) and a wide range of writers, 73 in all.
The authors include Winston Churchill, Dion Calthrop, Alan Herbert, Arthur Mills, Donald Winslow, Seymour Hicks, Alec Waugh, Reginald Arkell, Alan Whicket, Harry Blyth, Denys Val Baker, Paul Tabori, and Maurice Richardson.
A random dipping-in discovers articles on the history of Piccadilly; a visit to the Twenty-One Club of New York in 1939; Piccadilly Circus by night; the Battle of Sidney Street; making a start in Fleet Street; useful books to read about wine; how a German ship got through a British blockade; and the romance of Sea-Wyf and Biscuit.
The book opens with an introduction and a useful history of the magazine, which Chris has written at greater length in his earlier book Men Only Magazine 1935-1963 A History and Bibliography (reviewed here). This current volume is similar to the author's two volumes of reprinted material from Lilliput published in 2024-25. There is a little cross-over in the authors, and, like those volumes, they offer snapshots in time of subjects that were meant to be of interest and importance to their male readers.
Men Only Magazine Anthology: The Best Writing From Its Initial Years 1936-1963 by Chris Harte. Sports History Publishing ISBN 978-189801024-1, October 2026, 267pp, £12.95. Available via Amazon.
