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Showing posts with label Frank Richards. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Frank Richards. Show all posts

20 February 2026

UPDATED: Old Boys Books - bibliographies etc

I really, really don't need to start another collection...BUT I am prepared to give room on the blog for a listing of bibliographical material related to the 'Old Boys Book' genre. These were text based rather than comic strip based so I've never collected the original material or the many fanzines that the genre spawned.

I don't pretend that this is any way a complete listing, it's just stuff I've come across recently on eBay and you've got to start somewhere. I'll add more titles as I go along. For this update it's some Frank Richards material...

UPDATE: all updates highlighted in red

Nelson Lee library - 7 pages, dated July 1961

Letters to a friend from Frank Richards (published by Museum Press)
one day I'll have enough time to look properly at all the book published by Museum Press. But not today.


The letters of Frank Richards

Sexton Blake catalogue (1966) - according to this source


supplement to the Sexton Blake catalogue (1971) - according to this source


the same Wikipedia page also lists a 2nd edition of the catalogue as having been published in 1993


The Nelson Lee library - Edwy Searles Brooks
the seller notes that this is 116 pages long and minutely detailed

This (below) look like the first edition of the above book. Described thus...
Published by the Old Boys' Book Club with an introduction by Bob Blythe, who seemed to run the club at the time, or at least heavily involved. The guide has orange card covers and approx 60 pages inside, packed with information on Nelson Lee. 

90 glorious years
A celebration of 90 years of the GEM and the MAGNET and a tribute to the life & works of Eric Fayne, the editor of Story Paper Collectors' Digest from 1959 to 1987. A great, profusely illustrated B&W 200 page book


John Nix Pentelow, 1872-1931
a relatively scarce fanzine for the Magnet Library. Printed in 1976 by the 'Cambridge Old Boys Book Club' and focusses on the life of John Nix Pentelow. Contributions from Jack Overhill, Bill Lofts, Deryck Harvey, Danny Posner, W.J.A. Hubbard and W.H. Broster

2 October 2024

The Charles Hamilton companion

I've looked before (here) at bibliographies etc. related to 'old boys books' (story papers like The Gem and The Magnet) and, while I can't possibly start collecting anything else in real life, here on the blog there's always more room on the shelf for volumes like the Charles Hamilton Companion...

this image swiped from a post by John Tipper on the The Magnet - Greyfriars - Billy Bunter - Frank Richards Facebook group here. Check out John's website here


The Charles Hamilton companion
volume 1 = A history of the Gem and Magnet
volume 2 = The Greyfriars characters
volume 3 = centenary edition
volume 4 = Schoolgirls' album
volume 5 = Rookwood
volume 6 = The Gem story illustrated
volume 7 = The Christmas stories
volume 8 = The Greyfriars commentary and book of verse



where there more volumes beyond issue 8? Do let me know. I'd also like to run a piece on the publications of the Museum Press. Again, any help on where I can find a list of their publications would be gratefully received.



12 February 2024

UPDATED: Old Boys Books - bibliographies etc

I really, really don't need to start another collection...BUT I am prepared to give room on the blog for a listing of bibliographical material related to the 'Old Boys Book' genre. These were text based rather than comic strip based so I've never collected the original material or the many fanzines that the genre spawned.

I don't pretend that this is any way a complete listing, it's just stuff I've come across recently on eBay and you've got to start somewhere. I'll add more titles as I go along. For this update it's some Frank Richards material...

Letters to a friend from Frank Richards (published by Museum Press)
one day I'll have enough time to look properly at all the book published by Museum Press. But not today.


The letters of Frank Richards

Sexton Blake catalogue (1966) - according to this source


supplement to the Sexton Blake catalogue (1971) - according to this source


the same Wikipedia page also lists a 2nd edition of the catalogue as having been published in 1993


The Nelson Lee library - Edwy Searles Brooks
the seller notes that this is 116 pages long and minutely detailed

90 glorious years
A celebration of 90 years of the GEM and the MAGNET and a tribute to the life & works of Eric Fayne, the editor of Story Paper Collectors' Digest from 1959 to 1987. A great, profusely illustrated B&W 200 page book


John Nix Pentelow, 1872-1931
a relatively scarce fanzine for the Magnet Library. Printed in 1976 by the 'Cambridge Old Boys Book Club' and focusses on the life of John Nix Pentelow. Contributions from Jack Overhill, Bill Lofts, Deryck Harvey, Danny Posner, W.J.A. Hubbard and W.H. Broster