Recently, I collected boxes of books I’d left “for a couple of weeks” in a pal’s garage five years ago. I was glad I didn’t accede to his suggestion that I throw them out.
“But you’ve done without them for five years. Why would you need them now?” Just because, that’s why.
They are mainly collections of journalism and English reference books, including dictionaries and useful volumes about similes, synonyms and quotations.
There’s a ‘Letter Writer’s Vade Mecum’ (published 1914) and an ‘Encyclopedia of Article Ideas’ (published 1946): “Whenever possible introduce human interest.” Damn, knew I was doing something wrong.
There are ancient self-help books such as ‘The Young Man’s Companion or Friendly Adviser to Educational Knowledge, Worldly Council and Gentlemanly Deportment’; ‘Life’s Snags and How to Meet Them’ by Lord Baden-Powell; ‘Arthur Mee’s Letters to Boys’, with its motto, “Watch ye, stand fast, quit you like men, be strong.”
A treasure trove of old magazines
Best of all is a random collection of old magazines and comics, including a ‘Chums’ from 1898, with the cover illustration showing “a stout elderly gentleman pluckily defending himself with an umbrella”; a ‘Gem’ from 1922, with two “Chums of St Jim’s” on the cover, peering through a window at “The House of Mystery!”; a ‘Hotspur’ from 1948 featuring Willie Wallop, a cricketer always breaking windows; and a ‘Magnet’ from 1930, whose cover shows Billy Bunter being pushed up a tree.
These are all published in small print, with few illustrations. When I was a bairn, I’d have given them a miss. Not enough cartoons!
An old Ovaltine advert
On the more serious side, there’s a ‘Spectator’ magazine from November 1937, with the front page illustration for an Ovaltine advert showing a maid with a tray offering the cosy drink to a seated lady, while her pipe-smoking husband stands with his back to the fire.
Inside, there’s an advert for a charity, The Waifs and Strays Society, and among the small ads this dubious offer: “Inferiority complex? Write for free book ‘I can … and I will’.”
Churchill and Attlee – “Britain’s Choice”
An ‘Illustrated’ magazine from October 1951 has photos of Attlee and Churchill on the cover: “Britain’s Choice”.
Pictures show slum streets and chaps in flat caps drinking stout in a poor constituency compared with bowler hatted gents – and even one in a monocle – in a wealthy constituency. Class differences then were so glaringly obvious. Today’s young toffs are likely to be disguised by baseball caps and athletic leisurewear.
A ‘Picture Post’ from March 1952 includes a Co-op ad with this verse: “As Tommy eats without restraint/The food bill make his poor Mum faint/But Divvy comes, saves the day/His Mum shops the wiser way!” Another ad is for “Mrs Peek’s mixed fruit pudding”.
“Going on holiday or on strike?”
There’s a ‘Listener’ from 1954, and I’m struck by the objective and moderate tone in these older magazines: Olympian, you might say.
More recently, I’ve a ‘Private Eye’ from 1973 (small ad: “Going on holiday or on strike? Have a week or two on the most beautiful canal in Britain …”) and a ‘New Society’ magazine from 1981. Anyone remember that?
I’m so glad I didn’t agree to have all these dumped in a skip. I’ll now store them away carefully – and maybe take them out again in five years’ time.
