written and posted by members of Lancashire Dead Good Poets' Society

Sunday 10 March 2024

Magazines

From my young days as a child visiting a makeshift chest clinic in a terraced house on Walton’s Parade’ in Preston clutching the latest copy of ‘Sunny Stories’,  by Enid Blyton, who became a firm favourite, to my stacks of ‘Nova’ magazine which had to be abandoned in a flat on Cheetham Hill as I made an escape from a dubious flatmate, I have been hooked. 


In the early days of ‘Bunty’ and ‘Girl’, we were lucky to have them delivered with the newspaper and I only had to make the effort when I wanted to read 'Dandy' and 'Beano' which weren’t thought suitable, so I had to go to the shop to buy them. My favourites were the school stories and the girls' wonderful times at boarding school so I remember ‘The School Friend’ which looking at copies Online now are really well presented but from all points of view ‘not politically correct’. In them was an escape from my basic boring Comprehensive school of everyday things to a wonderland in a mysterious old house or mansion where you could be with a group of pals who had adventures and afternoon tea served to them. Sometimes they dressed up in gowns and masks as’ The Silent Three’ to right a wrong. It was very moralistic with honour for the school and each other. I loved the names Polly Linton and Betty Barton, Cora Grandways was a troublemaker. 

'The School Friend' was published by Amalgamated Press as a story paper for girls from 1919 to 1929, renamed The Schoolgirl and continued to1940, revived as a comic in 1950 as a mix of comic strips and prose stories published by AP, then Fleetwood and IPC .In 1965 it merged into ‘ June and Schoolfriend’ edited by Mavis Miller. Some original titles were:
 
     The Gypsy Schoolgirl 
     The Heroism of Phillipa Derwent 
     The Girl who Deceived the Form 
     Bessie Bunter’ s Busy Day 


This was supposed to be the correct way to think and mostly went unchallenged. 

As a young adult let loose from the claustrophobia of home there were so many versions of life shown in the monthly editions and as for the top shelf men’s mags!

The American edition of 'Cosmopolitan' was a find and much better than the later British version but returning to the 70’s there was ‘Spare Rib’. 

This was serious stuff, not the sitting down with a packet of chocolate digestives to while away an hour, material. This magazine was founded in 1972 in the U.K. to shape debate about feminism, challenging stereotypes with a jokey title referring to the Biblical reference of Eve who was the first woman created from Adam’s rib and showing there was no independence for women from the beginning of time. The first issue was distributed by Seymour Press but  W.H. Smith refused to stock it because it had an expletive on the back page! Later it was distributed to a network of radical and alternative bookshops. 


It had to have the ‘look’ of a woman’s mag but it’s purpose was to investigate and present alternatives to the traditional roles of virgin, wife and mother and to set the record straight on Women’s Liberation by reaching out to all women. It ceased publication in1993 as there were splits in thinking. 'Spare Rib' is recognised as iconic today in the U. K and was digitised by the British Library in 2016. It remains one of the Women’s Liberation movements most notable achievements. 

There are too many magazines to do them justice here but they have featured over many decades of my life. Sorry, can’t find a poem for this and thank you for reading.

Cynthia

3 comments:

terry quinn said...

Love the cover of Sunny Stories.

There was something about mysterious mansions and pals and adventures. I want to read The Heroism of Phillipa Derwent.

I didn't know that Smiths had banned Spare Rib.

Really enjoyed these memories.

Steve Rowland said...

Interesting recollections, Cynthia. We were never allowed comics as children, so I don't really have any comparable experiences. Books yes, comics no. It was just a value judgement my rather puritanical parents made. (More details in my own blog on the topic.)

I did regularly read Spare Rib in the 1970s and early 1980s because I had girlfriends and housemates that used to buy it.

Penny Lockhart said...

The best place for junket, through the window. Nasty stuff, served as food for invalids.