Gillings was able to attract some good material, despite the low payment rates he was able to offer; he also included many reprints from U.S. science fiction magazines.

Gillings also published William F. Temple's first story, some early material by John Wyndham, and "The Prr-r-eet" by Eric Frank Russell.

With the advent of World War II, paper shortages and Gillings' call up into the army made it increasingly difficult to continue, and the sixteenth issue, dated Spring 1942, was the last.

No British sf magazine appeared until 1934, when Pearson's launched Scoops, a weekly in tabloid format aimed at the juvenile market.

The editor, T. Stanhope Sprigg, had help from Walter Gillings, a British science fiction reader who had been active in fan circles since the early 1930s, in searching for good submissions, but the project was placed on hold after fifteen months.

Gillings was given a budget of 10/6 (ten shillings and sixpence) per thousand words: the low rate discouraged those writers who could sell to the better-paying American magazines.

Sales were good enough for The World's Work to continue publication, and from Spring 1938 the magazine appeared on a quarterly schedule, with occasional omissions.

Gillings decided that many British science fiction readers would not be familiar with most of the developments in American sf, and so he did not make a point of seeking innovative and original material.

Gillings ran competitions for reader essays, one of which was won by Ken Bulmer, later a well-known British science fiction writer,[2] and he encouraged fans to contribute, with articles and fillers.