Temple Magazine

The Temple Magazine v.1 no.1

I wonder if anybody can account for ideas? They seem to float about like thistledown in autumn winds, and to drop anywhere at haphazard. Whether they take root or not depends on many circumstances. It would be almost impossible to explain the genesis of The Temple Magazine. I do not know when the idea first suggested itself. I know it grew very slowly at first, and has taken many months to ripen. It is quite true that there seems almost a surfeit of magazines in the field, but it is also true that no other new venture is on precisely the same lines. This is intended as a magazine for the home, the church, and the school—a magazine that may be read on the Sunday and week-day alike, and will be of interest to all classes and demoninations. It will not be narrow or sectarian or goody-goody. It will be broad, tolerant, strong and devout. Nothing will be admitted to its pages that could offend the moral sensibilities of anyone. It shall be healthy and helpful and entertaining from the first page to the last.
__This is said in no spirit of boasting. The services of the best and most healthy writers of the day have been secured, and their ripest work will appear from month to month. If money and brains can ensure success, The Temple Magazine will stand in the forefront. We do not pretend that the present number is the best that can be produced. Everyone who has the smallest acquaintance with journalism knows that in the production of a new magazine legions of initial difficulties have to be overcome. The launching of a new magazine is like the launching of a new vessel. A thousand things have to be done that will not need doing a second time. When the barque is once afloat, the voyages can be run with comparative ease.From time to time new features will be introduced that will make The Temple Magazine still more attractive. But we are not without hope that the present number will give satisfaction to everyone who knows how to appreciate a good article, and will be a sufficient guarantee of what is to come. The special features deserve more than a passing word. The series of Illustrated Life Stories should be prove of exceptional interest. They are not mere interviews; they are much more than that. They are terse, vivid, and up-to-date biographies; giving in the smallest reasonable compass all the salient features in the lives of the individuals named. The name of Mrs. Tooley will be sufficient guarantee of the character of the workmanship as well as of the accuracy of the details. In every case her information will be first-hand, special facilities having been granted her for this series of Life Stories. This is true also of the series of articles under the head of “Churches That Live and Move.” In each case a special visit will be paid by a representative of The Temple Magazine, who will thus write from actual observation, and only such information will be inserted as likely to be of general interest.
__I think it a happy circumstance that the services of Dr. Parker have been secured for what may be regarded as the strictly religious portion of the magazine. Month by month in “The Home Service” he will give us the best of his heart and brain. And all who have felt the reverance of prayer, and caught glimpses of the deeper meanings of God’s truth, will be thankful for those practical, profound, and deeply spiritual expositions.
__We are quite anticipating also that “The Temple Parliament” will awaken more than a passing interest. The subjects that may be discussed are almost numberless; nor need they all be of a serious order. Subjects gay as well as grave may find a place. And since each writer will look at the matter under discussion from his own standpoint, the diversity of opinions expressed should not only be exceedingly entertaining, but highly instructive. That “The Home Department,” under the able editorship of “Phyllis Browne,” will be of great value goes without saying. Nothing of interest to mothers and daughters, and housewives generally, but will have a place in this department, and may have the fullest discussion.

Published by Horace J. Marshall & Son, Temple House, Temple Avenue, E.C., Temple Magazine was the brainchild of Silas K. Hocking and published (according to the cover) in a first edition of 100,000 copies.

The Gambling Curse was the subject of the first Temple Parliament, with brief contributions by W. E. Gladstone, Rev. T. Vincent Tymms, Hon. and Rev. E. Lyttelton, Dr. R. F. Horton, John Hawke (secretary of the Anti-Gambling League) and Frederick A. Atkins (founder of the League). Atkins, it would seem, was the actual editor of the paper rather than Hocking (this according to Mike Ashley's The Age of the Storytellers. Atkins was also editor of other magazines for Horace Marshall, including The Young Man and Young Woman.

The second issue was set to include a new stories by Gilbert Parker (‘A Worker In Stone’), Jean Barlow (‘M’Neill’s Tiger-Sheep’), Mary A. Dickens (‘Not In Vain’) plus articles by Mrs. S. A. Tooley (‘Life Story of Hugh Price Hughes’) plus a lively discussion on the topic of “Should Sensible Women Follow the Fashions?”.

Temple Magazine ran for a total of 84 issues, coming to an end with the September 1903 issue.

Contents:

The Temple Magazine [v1 #1, October 1896] (6d, 80pp, cover by ?)
1 * Couch, A. T. Quiller * The Lady of the Red Admirals * ss; illus. Chris Hammond
7 * Tooley, Sarah A. * The Life Story of Dean Farrar * ar
18 * Gould, S. Baring * From Death to Life * ss; illus. Sydney Cowell
25 * Maclaren, Ian * A Right Appreciation of Riches * ar
28 * Hocking, Silas K. * In Spite of Fate [Part 1 of ?] * sl; illus. Florence Reason
41 * Porritt, Arthur * Churches That Live and Move I—Union Chapel, Manchester * ar
47 * Carey, Rosa Nouchette * Sir Galahad * ss; illus. Arthur Twidle
53 * Gale, Norman * Autumnal Beauty * pm; illus. Thos. Greenhalgh
54 * Haweis, Rev. H. R. * Marie Corelli As I Knew Her * ar
57 * Leslie, Marion * Round and About Sadringham * ar
65 * [Misc. Material] * Preachers in Their Pulpits I—Canon Scott Holland at St. Paul’s * il; illus. Will Morgan
66 * Parker, Joseph * The Home Service * ar
70 * Hocking, Silas K. * Round the Study Fire * ed
74 * Browne, Phyllis * Our Home Department * ms
78 * [Misc. Material] * The Temple Parliament * ms

The Search Light

The Search Light no.1

Edited by C. Arthur Pearson and introduced thus:

With the Editor’s Compliments

A few words with regard to the purpose of this magazine will not, I hope, be considered out of place. Its conception was the result of a conversation between myself and a well-known journalist, in the course of which he said :—
__“The ephemeral nature of journalistic work is its most discouraging feature. To-day I write a newspaper article which I know embodies some of my best writing. By to-morrow it has gone. Like the May-fly, it has lived but a few hours, whereas it was just as worthy of preservation as other matter from my pen, which is kept by thousands in the permanent form of bound volumes.
__His complaint was very just. A great deal of the most interesting literary work of the day appears in the newspapers, to suffer premature cremation between the bars of the grate, or to serve as a wrapper for cheese and candies.
__It will be the object of the Search Light to embody in more permanent form a monthly selection of such matter—to lay before its readers stories and articles that everone would like to read, if only they knew where to find them. The selection will be one which no individual could make, for it will embody the work of a score of persons, and will embrace material from journals published in every part of the civilised world.
__The sketches of prominent men and women among those who are making the papers of the world will be continued from month to month.
__To write more would be superfluous. Those who read these words will read the magazine, with the results, I trust, that they consider its publication justified by its merits.

A brief editorial piece on page 64 notes that “The preliminary issue of No.1 of this magazine is of 100,000 copies, each one accompanied by a coloured plate. As we go to press there is every indication of a demand largely exceeding this number. Should these indications develop into fact, a re-issue of the magazine must be without th plate, for owing to the number of printings in this it would be impossible to provide a further supply in less than three weeks, by which time No.2 would be coming before the public.”

Some of the material is cringingly racist: although sources were not given, one piece—“The Unsophisticated Nigger”—was noted as coming from The Anti-Jacobin which had just folded. “Had The Anti-Jacobin contained more matter similar to ‘The Unsophisticated Nigger’, its fate would probably have been different; but its contents were of too heavy and uninteresting a nature for the general reader.” The Anti-Jacobin was the product of Frederick Greenwood, previously associated with Cornhill, Pall Mall Gazette and St. James’s Magazine.

Some of the (usually anonymous) short stories that appeared in Search Light were translations from European magazines. This was an early publication of C. Arthur Pearson, who would before long launch Pearson's Magazine which was to be one of the most successful monthlies of the the era. Search Light was not such a success and lasted only four volumes, from March 1892 to September 1894, a total of 31 issues plus a Christmas Special for 1892.

Contents:

The Search Light [v1 #1, March 1892] (3d, 64pp+ads, cover by ?)
Includes a monochrome plate by F. Calvert
1 * Anon. [Pearson, C. Arthur] * With the Editor’s Compliments * ed
2 * Anon. * Concerning Celebrities * ar
12 * [Misc. Material] * A Page of Verse * ms
13 * Anon. * Barnaby’s Offering * ss
15 * Anon. * What is Found on a Japanese Bill of Fare * ar
16 * Anon. * Birds That Build Mountains * ar
17 * Anon. * The Atlantic Record * ar
18 * Anon. * Was Christopher Columbus a Frenchman? * ar
19 * Anon. * Contempt of Court * ar
20 * Anon. * How to Make Pearls * ar
21 * Anon. * Bees as Errand Boys * ar
22 * Anon. * Green Pinks * ar
23 * Anon. * A Million Spinsters and What To Do With Them * ar
23 * Anon. * An Earlier Bird * ss
28 * Anon. * A World of Watches * ar
29 * Anon. * La Couvade—The Pangs of Paternity * ar
30 * Anon. * The Soldiers of Mercy * ar
31 * Anon. * The Paris Stock Exchange * ar
32 * Anon. * Burmese Boxing * ar
33 * [Misc. Material] * A Page of Verse * ms
34 * [Misc. Material] * Questions Worth Discussing * ms
38 * Anon. * A Desert Duel * ss
39 * Anon. * The Shattered Masterpiece * ss
41 * Anon. * The Truest Socialists * ar

The Royal Magazine

The Royal Magazine no.1

Launched by C. Arthur Pearson on October 14th, 1898, the first issue dated November 1898. Issued in a buff cover with a two colour (pink and black) photograph engraved by Swain of a young girl designed by Lallie Garet Charles. (In the above picture the magazine was so rust- and otherwise stained that I bleached out the colour. The photograph had survived surprisingly well.)

The Royal followed in the footsteps of Harmsworth's Magazine in being priced 3d. rather than the usual 6d. for a monthly. C. Arthur Pearson, the publisher made much of the need for a huge circulation--a million copies--that would be required to keep such a cheap magazine afloat, although Mike Ashley has pointed out (The Age of the Storytellers) that it is unlikely that the magazine ever achieved anything near a million copies. A more likely circulation was between 150,000 and 250,000, the latter figure for special Christmas issues.

Here is Pearson's first editorial:

It is customary with all new publications for the editor to offer an apology or explanation for coming into existence. We shall make neither the one nor the other. The Royal Magazine will be original in all things. This page, therefore, being at his disposal, the editor proposes to moralise as follows:—
A Million Copies! It does not seem anything very wonderful as the eyes glance about that one is apt to fancy that it is easy to have a just appreciation of what a million really is. Nevertheless, a million copies of The Royal Magazine means more than most people would think.
It takes 65 machines 24 days to print it. If one machine had to do the entire printing and worked continuously night and day it would take 521 days. The binding alone affords occupation for 750 hands. No single firm could undertake so large a task to be completed with the necessary speed.
Setting aside all questions of the labour involved in designing and comlpeting the Magazine, in printing and binding and distributing it, let us now try and gauge the bulk of a million copies
In the first place, they weigh almost exactly 300 tons.
Laid flat on top of the other the million copies would form a slender column rising exactly 4 miles and 1640 yards into the air. That is practically to a height equal to that of Mount Everest.
Placed end to end we would have a “thin buff line” 149 miles 1640 yards in length—a line in fact that would extend from the publishing office some ten of fifteen miles beyond Bristol, or almost to Sheffield.
Or if it were to decide to enclose St. Paul’s in a wall as high as the cross at the top of the dome, one million copies would suffice with due allowance for means of entering.
If, before the magazines were stitched together, the loose pages and covers were laid on the ground, they would cover an are of almost exactly 571 acres.
The area of St. Paul’s is approximately 78,125 square feet. Five times would amount to 390,675 square feet, and yet the first edition of The Royal Magazine would page the lot with copies placed side by side, and would leave sufficient over to stretch, if laid in single file and end to end, a distance of over thirteen miles from the Cathedral.

Despite the magazine never achieving a million sales, it was a success and would run for 491 issues in total. After 385 issues, it was revamped (December 1930) as The New Royal Magazine; in May 1932 it became The Royal Pictorial before switching tack completely. In January 1935 it became a film magazine under the title The Royal Screen Pictorial, followed a few months later by the dropping of 'The Royal' when it became Screen Pictorial in July 1935. It was an early war casualty, the last issue dated September 1939.

Contents:

The Royal Magazine [#1 v1, November 1898] (3d, 96pp, cover: photo)
3 * Draycott, Kirby * And Crock Face of Schaumburg * ss; illus. V. Christie
10 * Walker, Geo. M. * The Art of the Camera * ar
20 * Florence, Walter * Where Sacred Relics May Be Found * ar; illus. W. Wallis Mills
28 * Rudd, Percy * The Brown Frock * ss; illus. C. Michel
37 * [Misc. Material] * Some People and Their Parents * ph
40 * Ray, Charles * Strange Fates of Some Noted Buildings * ar; illus. Geo. H. Edwards
47 * Marchmont, A. W. * Aeolf, the Martyr * ss; illus. A. L. Bowley
52 * Nauen, Etta * The Laziest People on Earth * ar
56 * Anon. * A Chapeaugraphic Artist * ar
60 * Marshall, Archibald * Elijach P. Jopp and the Dragon * ss; illus. Tom Browne
67 * Denison, Jeffery * After the Accident! The Risks We Run * ar
73 * Anon. * Snapshot Interviews: George R. Sims * iv
76 * Hampton, Evelyn * The Coachman’s Daughter * ss; illus. Lewis Baumer
84 * Harding, Geoffrey * What a Dog Can Do * ar
86 * Stevens, Lewis * Swimming on Dry Land * ar
90 * Anon. * The Curiosity Shop * ms
91 * Wainwright, Caley * After Dinner Carpentering * ar; illus. A. McNeill Barbour
96 * Anon. * One Million Copies! What it Means * ar; illus. J. S. S.

Comic Cuts

Welcome to post 700!

I'm away to London to do some editorial work today. Got to go catch a train...

So, that's it from post 700. Not quite as epic as I'd hoped, but here are a couple of news items from elsewhere to entertain you this Monday morning...



* Lew Stringer at Blimey! spotted the above series of adverts from the around 1979 for Look-In on YouTube. The same poster (col2006ie) has put up a number of shorter Look-In ads from the mid-1980s—here and here. TVTimeMachine80 has also posted an ad from 1985, here.

* Nick Abadzis is following up his Laika graphic novel with a serial entitled "Cora's Breakfast" which will be running in 3-page episodes in The Guardian for the next six weeks starting on Saturday, 19 April (yes, I know I'm late). You can catch up with the strip at the Guardian website. (It downloads as a PDF.)

Eagle Artists

What follows is a list of artists known to have contributed to Eagle. The comic ran for 987 issues between 1950 and 1969 and with very few official records remaining it is almost inevitable that this list is incomplete. Further information about any of the creators listed below would be very welcome.

Salomon van Abbé (Wikipedia)
Tom Adams
Martin Aitchison (Wikipedia)
D. Alford
Matias Alonso
Gifford Ambler
Colin Andrew
P. J. Ashmore
Robert Ayton
G. William Backhouse
John Batchelor
Frank Bellamy (Wikipedia)
Georgio Bellavitis
Luis Bermejo (Wikipedia)
Harry Bishop
__ Blake
Jesus Blasco [Jesús Blasco] (Wikipedia)
__ Bonner
Wilfred Booth
G. Bowe
Leslie Bowyer
G. Bull
Reg Bunn (Wikipedia)
John M. Burns (Wikipedia)
Geoff Campion
Mike Charlton
Raymond Copeland
Bruce Cornwell
Graham Coton
John Spencer Croft
Roy Cross
Eric Dadswell
Danet, Dubrisay, Genestre
Jack Daniel
Gordon Davies
Roland Davies
C. L. Doughty (Wikipedia)
Laurence Dunn
Eric Eden
__ Ellis
Gerry Embleton (Wikipedia)
Ron Embleton (Wikipedia)
R. W. Escott
Sam Fair
Dennis Fairlie
Roland Fiddy
Walkden Fisher
Victor de la Fuente
__ George
Carl Giles (Wikipedia)
Strom Gould
Frank R. Grey
Frank Hampson (Wikipedia)
Don Harley
John Harris
Gerald Haylock
P. Martinez Henares
Hergé (see Georges Remi)
Geoffrey Hill
Cyril Holloway
Stanley Houghton
Frank Humphris
Robert Hunt
Charles Hurford
Peter Jackson
Alan Jefferson
Richard E. Jennings
Lino Jeva
Harold Johns
Robert Johnston
Peter Kay
Tom Kerr (Wikipedia)
Eric Kincaid
Jack Kirby (Wikipedia)
A. Lake
David Langdon
Don Lawrence (Wikipedia)
Leroi
Brian Lewis
Harry Lindfield
Gerald Lipmann
Frank McDiarmid
Bruce MacDonald
Kenneth McDonough
John McLusky (Wikipedia)
Bill Mainwaring
Terry Maloney
Paul B. Mann
W. P. Mathew
Alfred Mazure
Barrie Mitchell
Webster Murray
Pat Nevin
Will Nickless
R. Nicoll
Jack Nicolle
Pat Nicolle
Alexander Oliphant (short note here)
Jose Ortiz (Wikipedia)
Gerald Palmer
Walter Pannett
Eric R. Parker
Reg Parlett (Wikipedia)
Edwin Phillips
Carlos Pino
Joan Porter (nee Humphries)
Dudley Pout
Peter Probyn
__ Redmill
Georges Remi (Hergé) (Wikipedia)
T. C. Renwick-Adams
Ross (Ron Smith & another artist)
R. Charles Roylance
R. G. Russell
John Ryan (Wikipedia)
Martin Salvador
E. Saunders
Angus Scott
Raymond Sheppard
Ronald Simmons
John S. Smith
Ron Smith (see also Ross)
Nicholas Spargo
Ken Stewart
William Stobbs (Wikipedia)
John Stokes (Wikipedia)
Ferdinando Tacconi (Wikipedia)
John Taylor
Norman Thelwell (Wikipedia)
Jocelyn Thomas
Malcolm Thomkins
__ Thornton
Greta Tomlinson
Paul Trevillion (Wikipedia)
Loredano Ugolini
__ Valentine
Desmond Walduck
David Walsh
Keith Watson (Wikipedia)
Ken Webb
Geoffrey Wheeler
Norman Williams
Pat Williams
Maurice Wilson
Harry Winslade
Leslie Ashwell Wood
M. Wood
John Worsley
Manuel Zatarain

Eagle Authors

What follows is a list of authors known to have contributed to Eagle. The comic ran for 987 issues between 1950 and 1969 and with very few official records remaining it is almost inevitable that this list is incomplete. Further information about any of the creators listed below would be very welcome.

Steve Allen (see Leonard Fincham)
Margery Allingham (Wikipedia)
Adrian Alington
G. W. Arthur-Brand
Donne Avenell
Robert Bartholomew
George Beardmore
Robert Beck
C. Bell
Ambrose Bierce (Wikipedia)
Derek Birnage
H. E. Blyth
A. C. Bolton
Geoffrey Bond
Wilfred Booth
Sydney J. Bounds
John Howard Jackson Boyle
Professor Brittain
Anthony Buckeridge (Wikipedia)
Michael Butterworth (Wikipedia)
Professor Cameron
George Cansdale
Michael Carreck
George Goldsmith Carter
Arthur Catherall
A. R. Channel (see Arthur Catherall)
D. Chapman
Charles Chilton (Wikipedia)
Arthur C. Clarke (Wikipedia)
Peter Cooper
E. G. Cowan
Syd Cozens
Jack Crayston
Guy Daniel
Basil Dawson
Michael Dawson (see John Howard Jackson Boyle)
Bill Dean
Charles Dickens (Wikipedia)
Grierson Dickson
Max Dunstone
Edward J. Dutton
John Dyke
Eric Eden
Jim Edgar
Bill Evans
Tom Fallon
J. Jefferson Farjeon
Bernard J. Farmer
Leonard Fincham
C. S. Forester (Wikipedia)
J. H. G. Freeman
Kelman Frost
R. A. Garland
E. Garnett
Hugh Gee
Michael Gibson
John Graves
Anthony Greenbank
Gordon Grinstead (see J. H. G. Freeman)
D. Gunston
Duncan Hall
Peter J. Hallard
Peter Hall
Frank Hampson (Wikipedia)
E. Harper
Macdonald Hastings (Wikipedia)
O. Henry (Wikipedia)
William Hepburn
E. W. Hildick
Garry Hogg
Stephen Hopkinson
John Hornby
Laurence Housman (Wikipedia)
Lewis Jackson (see Jack Lewis)
Alan Jason (see Geoffrey Bond)
Richard E. Jennings
W. E. Johns (Wikipedia)
Brian Johnstone
Bill Keal
Christopher Keyes (see Clifford Makins)
Stan Lee (Wikipedia)
Doris Lessing (Wikipedia)
Tony Lethbridge
Jack Lewis
Eric Leyland
Peter Ling (Wikipedia)
Derek Lord
Chesney MacGuire (pseud)
Clifford Makins
John Marsh
James Massey
Leonard Matthews
Dennis May
Lee Mayne (see Leonard Fincham)
Kenneth H. Mennell
Clarence Mitchell
Guy Morgan
Marcus Morris (Wikipedia)
David Motton
Martin O'Conner
Willie Patterson
Frank S. Pepper
Lt.-Col. Oreste Pinto
John Pritchard
Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (Wikipedia)
Moore Raymond
Rex Rienits
Don Riley (see Basil Dawson)
David E. Roberts
John Ryan (Wikipedia)
Rafael Sabatini (Wikipedia)
R. B. Saxe
Alastair Scobie
Adrian Seligman
Peter Simpson (see Bill Wellings)
Frederick Smith
Professor Steele (see Peter Cooper)
John Stenhouse
Alan Stranks
Ronald Syme
Richard Tracy
Edward Trice (see Guy Morgan)
Tom Tully
Chad Varah (Wikipedia)
Alf Wallace
Lyall Watson (Wikipedia)
Bill Wellings
Valentine Williams
Charles Willis (see Arthur C. Clarke)
Roy Worvill

Pearson's Magazine

Pearson’s Magazine No.1

Not many publishers would admit to some dissatisfaction with their new publication, but C. Arthur Pearson took that risk in his opening editorial for Pearson's Magazine. "There seem to us to be several ways in which future issues can be made of considerably more literary and artistic merit," he said... and it would be true to say that he succeeded as the magazine improved rapidly and found a ready audience who would see it through 527 issues, the magazine eventually folding in November 1939 because of the war.

In his editorial, Pearson spent most of his time stressing how much money had been spent in putting the magazine together and attacking the "discount system" whereby some monthly magazines priced at 6d were made available for 4½d. Here is what Pearson had to say about his new publication:

No large sums have been spent in heralding the advent of Pearson’s Magazine by advertisement. The money which might have been spent in this way has gone into the Magazine itself.
At the same time, we have caused statements to be circulated to the effect that the Magazine was to be of unusual excellence.
It is for you, who hold this copy in your hands, to decide whether in saying this we have gone beyond the mark, and to show your condemnation or appreciation by your future action, both as regards subscribing to the Magazine and commending it to the attention of your friends.
If it is not the best sixpennyworth that has been hitherto produced, it will be a failure, for unless it immediately attains, and succeeds in keeping, a colossal circulation, the enormous sum spent in producing each issue cannot possibly be justified.
Writing this with the proofs of No.1 before us, we have to confess that we are not, by any means, satisfied that the highest point has been reached. There seem to us to be several ways in which future issues can be made of considerably more literary and artistic merit, and these will not be neglected.
Succeeding numbers will, we can safely assert, surpass this first essay in both interest and appearance. Below are given brief particulars regarding the literary and artistic contents of some of the eaerly succeeding numbers.
A word now on the price of Pearson’s Magazine. It is sixpence, and the possession of a copy must imply the disbursement of the little silver coin with this name—not of four pennies and a halfpenny. No penny paper can be obtained for three farthings. No sixpenny illustrated weekly journal is sold to the public for 4½d. Why, then, should a sixpenny publication be issued with this disadvantage simply because it is published at intervals of a month? And why should the reader in a large town be able to buy for 4½d. an article for which the reader in the country must pay sixpence?
The discount system is bad for both publisher and newsvendor. It remains to be proved whether it has taken so firm a hold that this attempt to combat it proves unsuccessful. We may say at once that if it does, Pearson’s Magazine will cease to exist, for it cannot be produced to sell at 4½d.
At the same time, the trader who disposes of a copy for 6d, is making more money out of it than he is when he sells a copy of any other magazine for 4½d.
Our remarks upon this point may seem of undue prolixity, but the discount system has obtained so general a vogue that it is thought advisable to dwell at some length upon it.
In conclusion, we beg all those who are in any way interested in the appearance of this Magazine to let us hear from them as to the opinion they have formed of its merits. Suggestions will be most carefully considered, for it is only by pleasing our supporters that we can hope to make Pearson’s Magazine a permanent success.

For issue two, Pearson promised stories by Mr. S. R. Crockett, Mr. Bloundelle-Burton, another ‘Secret of the Courts of Europe’, another play, and more ‘Wisdom Let Loose’. Future issues would include stories by Marie Corelli, Stanley J. Weyman, Rudyard Kipling, Ian Maclaren, Gilbert Parker, Robert Barr, Cutliffe Hyne, George Griffith and “in fact, all the most prominent writers of fiction of the day.”

Mike Ashley has asserted that the magazine owed much of its success to three authors: C. J. Cutcliffe-Hyne, George Griffith and H. G. Wells. Pearson's published Cutcliffe-Hyne's Captain Kettle stories, one of the most popular characters of the era although nowadays almost forgotten, and the fantasy serial 'The Lost Continent' (1899). Both Griffith and Wells penned science fiction yarns for Pearson's, notably 'Stories of Other Worlds' by Griffith (1900) and 'The War of the Worlds' by Wells (1897), and the magazine also featured many articles on scientific progress.

If you want to learn more about Pearson's Magazine (and many of the other magazines I've featured in this little series—and I've not run out of first issues yet), I'd recommend you pick up a copy of Mike Ashley's The Age of the Storytellers, which has essays on 70 of the major fiction magazines that appeared before the Second World War plus a round-up of 70 others.

Contents:

Pearson’s Magazine [#1 v1, January 1896] (6d, cover: photo)
3 * Anon. * Artists and Their Work * ar
14 * Forbes, Archibald * The Bravest Deed I Ever Saw. How Lord William Beresford Won the V.C. * ar; illus. R. Caton Woodville
19 * Hope, Anthony * The Vigil of Count Amadeo * ss; illus. R. Sauber
35 * Anon. * In the Public Eye * ar
42 * Gale, Norman * Waiting for Summer * pm; illus. Anthony Fox
43 * W., A. * First Attempts at Photography *
45 * Upward, Allen * Secrets of the Courts of Europe No.1—A Stolen King * ss; illus. Hal Hurst
57 * Gordon, W. J. * What It Costs to Work a Railway * ar
64 * Harte, Bret * A Convert of the Mission * ss; illus. A. Forestier
78 * Sullivan, J. F. * The Great Water Joke * pm; illus. J. F. Sullivan
83 * Brand, J. * A Colonial King * ar
88 * Barr, Robert * A Dramatic Point * ss; illus. G. G. Manton
96 * Pain, Barry * Five Act Tragedies * pm; illus. J. F. Sullivan
97 * Alden, W. L. * Wisdom Let Loose * ar; illus. Charles May
102 * Besant, Sir Walter & Pollock, W. H. * The Voice of Love * pl; illus. Miss Chris Hammond
112 * Pearson, C. Arthur * The Editorial Mind * ed

The Novel Magazine

The Novel Magazine No.1

YOUR FOURPENCE RETURNED

I think I have hit upon an absolutely NOVEL idea in advertising nad it comes very appropriately into use in advertising the first issue of THE NOVEL MAGAZINE. You will have seen our front cover, and you will have read thereon that you can, if you wish, get back again the fourpence you have spent in purchasing this copy.
I have made this offer with the thought of the money it may cost; it will run into thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of pounds, but I do not mind. The more the merrier! For I know that for every fourpence that I return I have gained a reader of THE NOVEL MAGAZINE, and I am willing all the time to buy readers at fourpence each. They are cheap at the price.
To get Readers is the main difficulty in starting a new periodical, You may spend £20,000 in advertising on the hoardings, and in other ways, but you are never quite sure how many new readers you will get by so doing. But if I have to spend £20,000 on this present scheme, I shall know for a certain that over a million persons have bought the first number of THE NOVEL MAGAZINE.
And now having explained to you how I am advertising this Magazine, I must tell you its salient features. Needless to say I should not be prepared to risk £20,000 unless I were quite sure that I had something to offer you which I am convinced you want.
What is THE NOVEL MAGAZINE?
Briefly, it is a Magazine entirely devoted to Stories. Fiction is the backbone of most Magazines; THE NOVEL MAGAZINE is all backbone. For fourpence you will be able in future to obtain a Magazine containing the best stories that money can buy, or that my staff of sub-editors can unearth from the thousand and one sources at their disposal.
To give variety to the contents you will find some half-a-dozen entirely novel features—"Books in Brief," "Half-Minute Stories,” "A Story in Verse," "Cupid in Fiction," "Pinafore Pages"—all of which I hope you will like.
I want you to read THE NOVEL MAGAZINE carefully through from beginning to end—it will take you longer than you think, but it is all good, easy reading—and then I want you to like it: and I want you to be unselfish, too, and instead of keeping a good think to yourself, tell all your friends about it. THE NOVEL MAGAZINE is the biggest Magazine for its price, and contains more, and, I hope, better, stories than any other. It isn’t illustrated, as you will see; the money we have saved in this direction has been put into the letterpress, so that you may have better stories and more of them.

The Novel Magazine was indeed novel: the first all-fiction British pulp magazine. Published by C. Arthur Pearson, it appeared two months after George Newnes' The Grand Magazine, but the latter only switched to all-fiction at a later date.

The title referred to novel stories rather than novel-length stories. The magazine certainly had some fine authors contributing to the first issue, including Rafael Sabatini (the first instalment of his novel, Bardelys the Magnificent), C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne (a reprint in the 'My Best Story' series, although the editor admitted that Cutcliffe Hyne had written better yarns!), Anton Tchekhoff (the first in a series of 'Masterpieces of Foreign Fiction') and a second serial, 'The Pillar of Light' by Louis Tracy, amongst others.

The magazine was a great success for Pearson and eventually ran for 393 issues, coming to an end in December 1937. According to Mike Ashley, its golden era was 1912-22 when it was edited by E. C. Vivian (bar a spell when he was serving during World War I). Later issues were edited by Nell Kennedy who dropped adventure and uncanny stories in favour of romance. The paper eventually merged with its great rival, The Grand.

Mike has an excellent essay on the magazine which goes into far greater detail about its history and contents in his book The Age of the Storytellers, which I highly recommend.

Comic Cuts

I've spent most of the week working on the first two books that will be appearing from Bear Alley, one a reprint of an old penny dreadful from the 1870s (from which the above picture is taken), the other a collection of essays. I've been print testing and the results I've had back have been pretty amazing. I've been showing them to everyone who walks in the door and everyone so far has been impressed. I've already had one order for the essays book—and I've not even finished writing it yet. It does wonders for your confidence.

Once these are out of the way it's back to The Mike Western Story. I've been working on it in fits and starts because I've been trying to locate and borrow copies of as many of Mike's strips as I can, some of which I've only read parts of because my own collection of comics is so patchy. I'm also working on a couple of other comics-related books that, if all goes to plan, should be out this summer. Titles and whatnot to be announced.

In the meantime, here are a few more new titles announced by Prion Books for release this autumn, including David Roach's Art of War and the next Commando book.

Art of War, edited by David Roach (ISBN 978-1853756627, 4 August 2008)
Follow-up to David's Aarrgghh! It's War book.

The Best of Punch Cartoons, edited by Helen Walasek (ISBN 978-1853756795, 1 September 2008)
"The Giant Book of Punch Cartoons" is a superb new book. This, the biggest collection of cartoons ever published from the most famous humour magazine of them all, is packed with superb gags and beautiful artwork by some of the world's finest artists of the past two centuries. The page size is huge, showing the cartoon art off in the best possible manner. And, at more than 600 pages, this book is an essential purchase for any fan of cartoons, visual humour or of the legendary "Punch" magazine.

The Best of Boyfriend, edited by Steve Holland (ISBN 978-1853756658, 1 September 2008)
"Boyfriend", a new kind of girls' paper, was launched in the spring of 1959. It was the first girls' magazine to truly put music first. Each week there would be a new 'Boyfriend' - Russ Conway, Johnny Mathis, Lonnie Donegan - introducing his life story and, to prove that he had a softer side, his favourite romantic story.You could also meet 'The Girl Behind the Boy'. Whether this was so you could emulate her to get your own pop-star boyfriend or a case of "know your enemy" so you could steal her boyfriend, I don't know.Away from the music, Rachel Lindsay handed out fashion tips on everything from clothing to hairstyles and twins Johnny and Jeannie Talbot offered weekly advice on the "Boyfriend" problems page."Boyfriend" really came into its own when the sixties began to swing. The magazine gave itself over to modern pop: as early as February 1963, before their first album was out, "Boyfriend" was describing The Beatles as "even more modern than modern." Cliff Richard was a favourite of the magazine and was given his own column to introduce other stars of the pop scene...although it's unlikely that Cliff ever got any closer to the column than cashing the pay cheque he earned from the magazine for using his name.

Seven years after its birth, "Boyfriend" sank beneath a swelling tide of pop magazines and girls all over the country mourned its passing."The Best of Boyfriend" celebrates the life of an iconic sixties publication with a welter of material that represent some of the best pate.

The Biggest Jackie Annual Ever! The Best Thing for Girls—Next to Boys (ISBN 978-1853756672, 1 September 2008)
Your daughter, or even your granddaughter, probably has no idea what it was like growing up in the sixties and seventies. Nowadays, MTV, mobile phones, the internet and downloaded pop bypass much of the excitement of rushing to the newsagent each week to find out who were the featured pin-ups, which of your favourite stars were being interviewed and what intriguingly delicate problems Cathy and Claire were tackling.This bumper edition of nostalgic pages is from the magazine that was truly top of the pops with every girl in the country for almost thirty years after its first publication in 1964.The magazine's heyday came in the seventies when The Osmonds, David Essex, The Bay City Rollers, David Cassidy and Slade were among the regular faces appearing in its pages but it wasn't just for the pop, TV and film stars that girls beat a path to their local newsagent's door. Like the original magazine, "The Biggest Jackie Annual Ever!", it includes fashion and beauty tips, puzzles and quizzes to help you find out, for example, the difference between loving someone and being in love with someone, recipes, horoscopes and enthralling Readers' True Experiences, as well as a smattering of romantic picture story strips.Now is your change to relive all of those golden Jackie moments and show the youngsters in your life what life was like when you were growing up. You can listen to a few hits while you do so, too, because of "The Biggest Jackie Annual Ever!"

Commando: Bandits at 12 O'clock, edited by George Low (ISBN 978-1847321282, 1 September 2008)
Everybody who has ever turned a page of a "Commando" war library has a favourite air story. The first thing to catch the attention are the names...Spitfire, Hurricane, Typhoon, Tempest, Whirlwind, Mosquito. Who wouldn't want to read a story with aircraft like that twisting and turning through the pages, machine guns or cannon flaming?And then there are the men who flew the fighters, bombers, seaplanes, flying boats and transport aircraft into combat. These pilots of every nationality had one aim...to make sure that they won their deadly duels high in the sky."Commando: Bandits at 12 O'Clock" is a collection of some of the finest and most exciting air adventures ever published by "Commando", so strap in, buckle up and enjoy the ride!

Hospital Nurse Picture Library: Love on Ward B, edited by Melissa Hyland (ISBN 978-1853756665, 1 September 2008)
Blonde and impossibly beautiful, Sally Brown is a probationary nurse at General Hospital and the star of 'Hospital Nurse Picture Library'. With her friend and colleague Maureen Evans she patrols the kind of wards that would have been familiar to her readers thanks to television. "Emergency Ward 10" had been running since 1957 so everyone knew that hospitals were buildings full of dishy doctors and patients in need of a little tender loving care."The Hospital Nurse" series was first launched in 1963 and for years thereafter, young girls, young women and not-so-young women invested a shilling each month to keep up with the romantic adventures of young Sally Brown. In the 1960s, nursing was second only to being an air hostess when it came to glamorous occupations for girls. Tales like "First Love", "Live and Love", "Kiss and Remember" and "Fooling With Love" tap into the obvious elements of love and romance - but titles like "Man Crazy" and "Naughty Nurse" hint that there is more fun to be had in these picture stories than between the prim covers of a Mills and Boon novel.If you think hospitals are just sterile wards full of sick people, think again.

News from elsewhere...

* The BBC 4 radio show The Reunion for 20 April will be a celebration of D. C. Thomson's Dandy and Beano. Presenter Sue McGregor "gathers together editors, cartoonists and scriptwriters to recall the halcyon days of the D. C. Thomson comics, to celebrate the characters they created and the comic strips they drew, and to discuss the challenges the industry faces in an ever-increasing multimedia age." The show will be available for 7 days via the BBC's Listen Again.

* John Adcock's Yesterday's Papers blog has recently included some strips that appeared in the comics' supplement of the Sydney (Australia)-based Sun Herald newspaper. Amongst them were reprints of 'Robin Alone' drawn by Bill Lacey and 'Strongbow the Mighty' drawn by Ron Embleton (above), both reprinted from the British Mickey Mouse Weekly.

* Alex Fitch has posted a number of podcasts of interviews since I last checked in. His Reality Check show has included an interview with Bryan Talbot as part of a number of interviews at this year's [SF] Eastercon, Orbital '08. Part 2 of the same report includes a chat with Neil Gaiman. Panel Borders for 8 March 2008 was an interview with Doug Braithwaite which has only recently been posted as a podcast. Coming to a podcast soon, hopefully, will be James DeCarteret's interview with Bryan Talbot & Mark Stafford about their new graphic novel, Cherubs, "a supernatural comedy-adventure about the apocalypse." Although I tend to only cover older British comics material here on Bear Alley, you might want to also check out some of Alex's other broadcasts on small press comics which you can via the main page of his Reality Check & Panel Borders blog.

* Peter O'Donnell, creator of Modesty Blaise, was 88 on 11th April and had his birthday celebrated with a brief interview in the Press Gazette (11 April). (link thanks to John Adcock)

* One of my other main hobby interests, old story papers, tends to get short shrift here at Bear Alley since they're uncommon and new information doesn't often come my way unless I'm looking for it specifically. But that doesn't mean nothing's happening. For instance, Georges Dodds has been putting together a fascinating website about author William Murray Graydon for some time now and has compiled some useful biographical information and a wide-ranging sampling of texts. And over at Yesterday's Papers, John Adcock recently published a lengthy column looking at the old penny dreadful Boy's Herald from 1877-78.

Obadiah Oldbuck redux: Beau Ogleby

As I mentioned yesterday (this seems to be today's standard opening), yet another hand-drawn old graphic novel has come to light. I'll hand over to Darrell Coons as he's the Man Who Knows about it:

"Your column on a unique copy of Obadiah Oldbuck caught my eye because of a similar copy I have of Beau Ogleby, another of Töpffer's comic albums that was translated into English and redrawn for publication. Like the Turner copy of OO, my copy of Beau Ogleby is hand-drawn and bound in a hard cover, and is a very close copy of the English edition by Tilt and Bogue, but without the illustrated title page. It is not signed and has nothing to indicate who the artist was. I have discussed this book with Prof. David Kunzle, an authority on Töpffer. He concluded that it had been traced from the Tilt and Bogue edition, possibly in the time period of that publication. I wonder if it could have been drawn by William Webb Turner."

Darrell further mentions, "I bought it from a book dealer in London. Someone wrote inside the front "Ex Bristow 3/78," whatever that means. The paper has a watermark "1834," but I have not yet been able to find out what that means."

Could this be another example of William Webb Turner's work? Frankly, your guess is as good as mine. From the examples of Turner's work I was able to post the other day it can be seen that he was a capable copyer of Töpffer's work. The Obadiah Oldbuck volume could well have been traced as is the Beau Ogleby.

I'm beginning to think of Turner as the BitTorrent of his era: copying comics and lending out the sheets to his pals to whom he was known as "World Wide" Webb Turner.

(* The pictures above show how close but subtly different the hand-drawn manuscript version is to the original Tilt & Bogue version, from which the hand-coloured picture at the top of this column comes. The coloured edition can be seen in full at the Michegan State University website... except the link doesn't seem to be working at the time of writing. Hopefully it's working again by the time you read this.)

Obadiah Oldbuck redux: James B. Sparke

The recent column on a hand drawn version of Obadiah Oldbuck has generated quite a bit of interest thanks to a mention of the piece on the Platinum list (an introduction to Platinum Age comics can be found here, written by Robert Beerbohm). As usual, comments have come directly to me—this is what happens when you advertise your e-mail address—and I've had some very interesting ones.

Hand drawn versions of early comic strips are a little more common than I thought. Both John Adcock (Yesterday's Papers) and Michel Kempeneers (Signs) have mentioned a discussion on the Platinum list of a discussion about hand drawn version of Cham's Histoire de M. Lajaunisse (1839).

I'm no expert on these early comics (I'm learning as I go along) but from what I read I believe this version (see pic at the top) is a coloured, pencilled version of the original which was pen-and-ink. The page is signed "J. B. Sparke, 1847", and the whole book has been scanned (including blanks). The large scans of illustrated pages appear between pages 5v and 75v.

Sparke seems to be a real person: James B. Sparke is credited with a lithographed book held by the British Library: The fortunes & mis of lunes (sic) of Narcissus Muff or the adventures of a day. [2], 36 leaves, 19 x 25 cm (obl.). Lithographed illustrations with captions. The cover title is The Adventures of Narcissus Muff by Jas. B. Sparke. The B.L. gives a date of c.1840.

James Sparke isn't a common name... but it's not uncommon enough for there not to be a number of them listed in various records. Once your brain has settled after that tortuous multiple negative, I'm tempted by one: a James B. Sparke who lived in Norfolk, full name James Bird Sparke.

There was a James Bird Sparke who ran Sparke's Foundry, based at Thorn Lane, Norwich, which was sold off by court order in 1843. James Bird Sparke (senior, if you like) was already deceased by then. A younger James Sparke appears in the 1841 census, a 22-year-old solicitor, living with his mother, Mary Sparke, in Mountergate, Norwich. In 1851 he is listed as a 30-year-old Attorney at Law. The 1851 census gives him the middle initial B.

Let me emphasise that this is total guesswork. I've no way of connecting James Bird Sparke to the Jas. B. Sparke who drew Narcissus Muff, about which I can find absolutely no reference so it might be something else for the Platinum group to explore if someone can get along to the British Library. James Bird Sparke just has the right initials and for some mysterious reason people involved with the law also seem to have the urge to write and draw. Look no further than Justice of the Peace William Webb Turner (artist of the Obadiah Oldbuck book which was the subject of the earlier column).

Was James Bird Turner a creative type? Well, yes he was. The next trace of him I've found is that he and his younger brother Alfred, describing themselves as "engineers" patented "improvements in sawing machinery" in 1857.

In the 1861 census we find James Sparke, now a 42-year-old Independent Gentleman, still living in Norfolk. In 1866, he married Mary E. Knapman at Clerkenwell, London, and the 1871 census shows him working as a solicitor and living with his wife in Islington. In 1891, the couple are still together, now living in Paddington with their daughter Ellen. James is described as no longer practicing (at 72 that might not come as a surprise).

Death records reveal that James Bird Sparke, born 1818, died in 1892 in Paddington, London.

More on this interesting subject tomorrow.

The New Penny Magazine

From the opening editorial:

A Few Words About Ourselves

With the publication of The New Penny Magazine we may claim to have touched the high-water mark in cheap popular periodical literature. Never before has such a collection of valuable material, both literary and pictorial, been offered at so low a price. Much has been done in recent years to cheapen our periodical literature. We can say with confidence that The New Penny Magazine in the matter of cheapness excels any other publication of the day.
It is our desire that it should be equally conspicious so far as the excellence of its contents, and the beauty and variety of its illustrations are concerned. We aim at making it not only the cheapest but the best popular Magazine of its class.
The pioneer of the cheap periodical Press was the Penny Magazine originated by Charles Knight and dear to the reading public in the days of our fathers. Mr. Knight’s publication has been dead for more than a generation. In issuing The New Penny Magazine, we are seeking to adapt to the tastes and requirements of the present day the idea which Mr. Knight embodied in his great publication. We propose to supply week by week a magazine fully equal in quality of its contents to any of the popular monthly magazines now published. In price it will be ONE PENNY, as against the sixpence ordinarily charged for the monthly magazine; whilst the quantity of reading matter and the number of illustrations will be fully one-half of those given in publications costing six or even twelve times as much.
We must leave The New Penny Magazine to speak for itself. Its readers will find themselves in possession of a treasure-house of literature old and new, both solid and entertaining.
Articles of exceptional interest, stories of adventure, thrilling records of gallant deeds, vivid pages from history, anecdotal accounts of novelties, curiosities, and famous personages, and graphic descriptions of Nature’s most wonderful scenes, will find a place in our pages. Each number will also contain one or two short complete stories and a serial tale by the best writers. Some of the richest gems of recent years will be found side by side with the masterpieces of the present day; and the whole will be embellished by illustrations from the pen, pencil or brush of the leading masters of black and white art.
Excellence will be our guiding principle, and the high standard which we set before ourselves will be steadily maintained, our intention being to secure for The New Penny Magazine the proud position of being the best and cheapest magazine that has ever been produced.

Published by Cassell & Company Ltd., London, Paris, New York & Melbourne, La Belle Sauvage, London, E.C.

Although it boasted about its desire to be the best pennyworth available the content was anonymous and fairly undistinguished. In this issue, the “Novelist’s Neighbours” were those of the late Robert Louis Stephenson in Samoa. Frank Barrett, the one named author, was also the author of ‘Olga’s Crime’, ‘Fettered For Life’, etc. Barrett was also a contributor to Cassell's Magazine and a writer of 'sensational' novels in the days when novels were published in three volumes but, beyond his dates (1848-1926), I know very little about him. I shall have to do some digging.

Contents:

The New Penny Magazine [#1, October 22, 1898] (1d, 60pp, cover by ?)
1 * Anon. * A Few Words About Ourselves * ed
2 * Anon. * A Novelist’s Neighbours * ar
6 * Anon. * Hard Pressed * ss
9 * Anon. * Nelson’s Day: October 21st, 1805 * ar
16 * Anon. * The Giant Cuttle-Fish of Fiction * ar
19 * Anon. * A Day’s Work in Queensland * ar
23 * [Comic Strip] * The Valorous Negro * cs; illus. A. H.
24 * Anon. * "As Others See Us" * ar
26 * Anon. * Touch and Go: A Midshipman’s Story * ss
31 * Anon. * In Lavender Land * ar
35 * Anon. * A Tragedy of the Peninsular War * ar; illus. Gordon Browne
37 * Anon. * Curious Spouting Rocks * ar
38 * Barrett, Frank * Out of the Jaws of Death [Part 1 of ?] * sl
44 * Anon. * A Welcome Inundation: The Annual Rise of the Nile * ar
49 * [Misc. Material] * Curiosities * ms
50 * Anon. * A Mysterious Affair * ss
56 * Anon. * "Going to the South Pole" * ar
60 * [Misc. Material] * Fun and Fancy * jo

Lazy Land

Lazy Land, 1st monthly part

Lazy Land, confusingly subtitled in the picture above "A Monthly Magazine for Men and Women", was a penny weekly also published in monthly parts. The first monthly part at least was priced 3d, although that may have been a loss-leader for the first number only. It was Printed by Sully & Ford, 1 & 30 Plough-court, Fetter-lane, E.C. and published by W. Lucas, at the Office, 158 Fleet-street, London, E.C.

It was edited by Thomas Harrison Roberts who was responsible for many publications over a period of many years, including Photos. The Popular Album (9 Feb-21 Sep 1895) subsequently continued as Photos and Sketches (1895) and Boys’ Stories of Adventure and Daring (26 issues, 1898), The Gainsborough Novels (1901-), My Own Novels (1902-) and many others.

Roberts made much of his long-time association with publishing in his editorial piece, "Entre Nous":

It has long been a pet project of mine to offer to the male portion of the great British reading public a weekly journal, which, while it provided matter suitable for the leisure of intelligent men, should be issued in such an attractive form and at such a price, as would render it possible that the enterprise might meet with extensive support.
Of fiction for women there is surely a sufficiency, while I know of no journal which for the popular penny, offers a supply of readable novels specially for the sterner sex.
Fifteen years ago I initiated the “complete weekly novelette” movement, which has since become so popular in this country, as is evidenced by the scores of imitations of my original venture.
During that fifteen years I have issued to the reading public nearly two hundred millions of complete novels—all by first-class authors.
I mention this fact to show I know something about popular fiction.
Now I purpose to start in a new direction, and in Lazy Land I have provided such a pennyworth as would have been impossible ten years since.
Among the authors who will from week to week cater for my readers amusement I am able to enumerate the names of
Grant Allen
B. J. Farjeon
F. W. Robinson
R. M. Ballantyne
G. A. Henty
E. Downey
F. M. White
Ouida
George R. Sims
G. Manville Fenn
John Strange Winter
Frederick Boyle
W. Clark Russell
Fitzgerald Molloy
Iza Duffus Hardy
Florence Marryat
&c., &c., &c.

Other engagements are in course of arrangement, and particulars will duly be announced. Of the artistic staff which I have gathered round me, let the present number speak for itself. Lazy Land is designed to be “A Weekly Magazine for Men,” and, occupying an unique position in that respect, I trust I may look for support from the great army of ligth literature.
As I believe in performance rather than in promises, I place this, my first number, before you, and ask you to help me by introducing Lazy Land amongst your friends. By this means the journal will become widely known, and I shall be enabled to keep it up to the high standard of excellence which alone can secure success in these days of keen competition.

T. H. Roberts.

Unfortunately for Roberts, it turned out to be a short-lived journal which lasted only 45 issues in 1893-94. It was incorporated into Good Company, also edited by T. H. Roberts, which noted “the weekly issue of “Lazy Land” is incorporated with this journal.” The first issue of Good Company appeared on March 24, 1894, described by the British Library as “a newspaper.”

Contents:

Lazy Land [Part 1 Vol.II, June 1893] (3d, typographical cover)
1 * Allen, Grant * The Governor’s Story * ss; illus. Hal Ludlow
6 * A.H.T.P. * Supreme Moments * ss; illus. G. V. Reading
8 * White, F. M. * Bluffed * ss
9 * Anon. * My First Appearance No.1: Miss Lucille Hill * ar
10 * Fitzmorris, Alan * The Parsee’s Puzzle [Part 1 of ?] * sl; illus. A. Morrow
14 * Rymer, A. * Le Monade * pm
15 * E.C.W. * The Wedding Present * ss; illus. M. B. Hewerdine
18 * Allan, E. * My Wife * ss; illus. H. Holland
20 * Roberts, T. H. * “Entre Nous” * ed
21 * Sims, G. R. * A Five Pound Note * ss; illus. G. V. Reading
27 * [Misc. Material] * At the Academy * ct; illus. A. Syd Harvey
28 * Martin, Leslie * The Tools of His Trade * ss; illus. H. Holland
30 * Anon. * My First Appearance No.2: Miss Loie Fuller * ar
31 * Fitzmorris, Alan * The Parsee’s Puzzle [Part 2 of ?] * sl; illus. A. Morrow
34 * Roberts, Morley * A Traveller’s Tales No.1: Wide Bay Bar * ss; illus. M. B. Hewerdine
37 * Trovato, Ben * The Skirt and the Dance * ar; illus. E. S. Hope
39 * Morris, J. * The Rock of Nakayama * ss; illus. G. V. Reading
41 * Gallon, T. * Mark Hedley’s Protégé * ss; illus. A. Morrow
46 * Roberts, Morley * A Traveller’s Tales No.2: Madame Morphine * ss; illus. Charles Eade
52 * Fitzmorris, Alan * The Parsee’s Puzzle [Part 3 of ?] * sl; illus. A. Morrow
54 * [Comic Strip] * Things You Meet When You Want to Catch a Train! * cs
55 * Paton, C. Jardyne * For Two Quarts of Beer * ss; illus. G. V. Reading
58 * White, F. M. * The Kissing Bonds * ss; illus. H. Holland
60 * Rymer, A. * My Surrender * pm
61 * Russell, Clark * Adventures of a Seaman * ss; illus. G. V. Reading
67 * Henriquez, A. R. * My Bargain * ss; illus. E. S. Hope
71 * Fitzmorris, Alan * The Parsee’s Puzzle [Part 4 of ?] * sl; illus. A. Morrow
74 * Roberts, Morley * A Traveller’s Tales No.3: A Modern Slave * ss; illus. Charles Eade
79 * A.H.T.P. * Colonial Experience * ss; illus. G. V. Reading

Tim Beaumont (1928-2008)

Tim Beaumont who died on 9 April 2008, aged 69, was a clergyman, publisher and politician who, in 1967, was created Lord Beaumont of Whitley. Born Timothy Wentworth Beaumont on 22 November 1928, he was the son of Major Michael Wentworth Beaumont, a rightwing Conservative MP for Aylesbury and his wife Faith (née Pease), the daughter of Liberal prime minister Herbert Asquith's chief whip, Jack Pease.

He had a monied upbringing and was educated at Eton (where he lasted only a year), Gordonstoun school in Elgin, Moray, and at Christ Church, Oxford, scraping a Third in agriculture. He then went to a theological college, Wescott House in Cambridge, and was ordained a deacon in 1955 and priest in 1956. He met and married (in 1955) Mary Rose Wauchope, with whom he had two sons and two daughters.

He was sacked after two years as an assistant chaplain at St. John's Cathedral, Hong Kong, but was invited to remain as vicar of Christ Church in Kowloon. It was in Hong Kong that he gained his first experience in publishing through editing a parish magazine. He believed that the Church was very poor at public relations—few newspapers carried articles about Church affairs (and when they did it was usually when a clergyman was caught doing something wrong) and the Church press was insufferably smug.

Following the death of his father in December 1958, Beaumont inherited a fortune and, returning to England a year later, was able to put some of his thoughts into action. In 1960, he became honorary curate at St. Stephen's, Rochester Row, and, on learning that the magazine Time and Tide was about to close, bought the ailing magazine from its publishers in March 1960. He introduced a weekly Church page and other changes and relaunched the paper. Four months later he acquired Prism, a small press magazine started by undergraduates two years earlier, which had earned itself a circulation of 2,000 but was in financial difficulties. In January 1961 he took over The National Christian News, which already had an established circulation said to have been 100,000.

Although Time and Tide rose in circulation (from 7,500 to 10,000) in 1960, Beaumont was still losing £600 a week and, in June 1962, he sold it to Brittain Publishing Company where it was continued by W. J. Brittain. Circulation of the monthly National Christian News, which had replaced many parish magazines, was down to 53,000 by February 1963; Beaumont had by then launched Outlook, a supplement intended for parish magazines. National Christian News (then giving its circulation as 47,000) was merged with the Birmingham Christian News in the autumn of 1963.

Beaumont became editor of New Outlook in 1964, a Liberal magazine he had begun publishing in 1961 with Donald Newby as founder-editor. Beaumont had become joint honorary treasurer of the Liberal Party in 1962 and chairman of their Publications Department in 1963. Beaumont was a supporter of Jeremy Thorpe, the Liberal Party's leader (and a contemporary at Oxford), who made him the party's first life peer in 1967. Lord Beaumont became Chairman of the party in 1966 but was sacked by Thorpe in 1968... only to win (on ballot) the party presidency three months later.

During this period, Beaumont had continued to publish. He had purchased the publishing company Studio Vista from Cecil Harmsworth King but sold it to Crowell-Collier & Macmillan in 1968; Aspect, a heavyweight magazine of in-depth articles on current affairs, foundered after only a year (1963-64); Prism was relaunched as New Christian in 1965 and ran with some success until 1970. Beaumont remained as publisher of New Outlook until selling the title in 1974.

By then, his vast fortune, already diminished by propping up publications that often lost a great deal of money and by generous donations to charities, had virtually disappeared in the stock crash of the early 1970s.

Beaumont resigned his holy orders in 1973 and had to earn a living; he became a food columnist for the Illustrated London News, and edited a number of books, including A 'New Christian' Reader (1974) and The Selective 'Ego': The Diaries of James Agate (1976). He was a contestant on Mastermind in 1977 on the subject of Liberal history since 1877.

He resumed his orders in 1984 and in 1986-91, was vicar of both St. Philip's and All Saints in Kew.

He remained on the Liberal benches in the House of Lords until 1999, for many of them as spokesman for education and the arts, then defected to the Greens, citing then leader Charles Kennedy's lack of action on the environment as his reason.

He is survived by his wife and three children. One of his sons was killed in a car accident in 1980.

Beaumont's connection to comics is as the publisher of Wonderland, an educational nursery comic-cum-magazine that was launched in 1961 under the banner of Wonderland Educational Press. From its first issue (15 September 1961), Wonderland was printed (in Italy) in full colour photogravure—the late Denis Gifford credited it as the first British comic to be published in colour throughout. The paper was edited by Harry White who went on to edit comics for City Magazines (Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear). Wonderland dropped its comics' content in September 1966 to become an all-educational title but folded 17 issues later in December 1966.

Obituaries: The Independent (11 April), The Guardian (11 April), Daily Telegraph (11 April).

(* The photo of Tim Beaumont comes from the Green Party website.)