British boys' magazines

[1] According to sports historian Robert William Henderson, "It was a tremendous contrast to the juvenile books of the period, which emphasized piety, morals and instruction of mind and soul; it must have been received with whoops of delight by the youngsters of both countries.

[4] The first story paper to make an impact was The Boys' and Girls' Penny Magazine, first published in September 1832.

[b] As the youth market established itself as an important part of the publishing industry, demand was perceived to exist for fiction which featured boys themselves in a leading role.

This demand was to be met by stories about the public schools, a world where adults could be relegated to the background and where youths could be presented as having a degree of independence not possible elsewhere.

The publisher who took the lead in this period was Trapp Holmes with magazines such as Smiles, Funny Cuts and Vanguard.

Amalgamated Press soon entered the market in started to two of the most famous boys' papers, The Gem and The Magnet.

The main writer for both was Charles Hamilton who was to be an important figure in schools fiction until his death in 1961.

In between the two world wars there appeared in Britain a number of weekly magazines or papers aimed at boys between the ages of 8 and 16.

Some short stories and a serial were included, but it was largely well-illustrated articles about modern inventions.

[citation needed] Previously, this type of boys' magazine had largely only been available in the United Kingdom as imports from North America.