In 1947, the first hardback Bunter book appeared. Other hardbacks, not all featuring Bunter, followed, and later the papebacks.<\/p>\n
If Bunter is the best remembered of Hamilton’s many memorable characters perhaps the finest is the portrayal of Heny Samuel Quelch: ‘a beast but a just Beast.’ He is one of the greatest schoolmasters in fiction.<\/p>\n
The Bibliography is in date of publication order. All add something to the knowledge of Hamilton, of his witings, or of his characters. I am greatly indebted to the authors and editors of the various works. The best overall view is Frank Richards<\/em> by Mary Cadogan. My special thanks to Mary for the Girl Scout<\/em> and Menton references.<\/p>\n Reg V. Moss<\/em><\/p>\n ‘Ow!’ roared Bob Cherry stopping his ears with his fingers, “you’re not refereeing a match with the All Blacks.”<\/p>\n Is this the first mention of the All Blacks in fiction. The source is a juvenile story-paper (Magnet<\/em> No.53) published in England on 13th February 1909.<\/p>\n Magnet<\/em>, which was published weekly, recorded the Greyfriars saga of Harry Wharton and Billy Bunter. The author was Charles Harold St. John Hamilton using his best known pseudonym of Frank Richards.<\/p>\n Why did Hamilton make this All Black reference, which obviously refers to the 1905 All Black tour? The context does not involve a football match and Greyfriars was a soccer, not a rugby playing school. Whatever the reason, it suggests that the All Blacks’ style of play and interpretation of the rules incurred the wrath of the referees, and that this had been duly recorded by the press.<\/p>\n Hamilton certainly made efforts to be abreast of the times. When the Boy Scouts were founded in 1908,he was quick to feature Boy Scouts in his stories. Even more strikingly, since the Girl Guides were not founded until 1910, in an issue of Gem<\/em> datd 17th August 1909 he introduced a rival troup of Girl Scouts. They were in skirts but otherwise outfitted the same as the boys. (Nevertheless it is debatable whether this was the first Girl Guide story written, as in July 1909 a Girl Scout story by Evelyn Yates appeared in the Girls’ Reader.) The cover of a typical story-paper for children<\/p>\n Charles Hamilton was born on the 8th August 1876 and began his writing career at 17, his first story being published in 1893. By the turn of the century his school, adventure, sport, western and detective stories were appearing in numerous story-papers.<\/p>\n But Charles Hamilton may have only been known as a prolifc writer of juvenile stories, if it had not been for Harmsworth’s Fleetway House, later Amalgamated Press. Fleetway House recognised Hamilton’s talents, and decided to secure his services on a regular basis. He was to write the feature school story in a new series of Gem<\/em>, involving his St. Jim’s School. Moreover, a similar length story about a new school, Greyfriars, in a new story-paper, the Magnet<\/em>. <\/p>\n Both papers appeared in Februay 1908, the stories written by ‘Martin Clifford’ and ‘Frank Richards’ respectively.<\/p>\n His publishers may have hoped that this work load would curtail the time Hamilton spent writing for other publications, including music. A writer of popular songs, his soccer version (twelve verses) of On the ball<\/em>, with music by brother-in-law Percy Harrison, had been vey successful.<\/p>\n Hamilton was never a member of the Amalgamated Press staff. He always remained a freelance writer. For each Gem<\/em> story and each Magnet<\/em> story, the payment was as much as eighteen guineas. When Magnet<\/em> ceased publication in 1940, the payment was fifty pounds per story.<\/p>\n Stories published by Amalgamated Press were required to be ‘wholesome’. Thus, in Gem<\/em> and Magnet<\/em>, smoking, drinking, gambling and betting were strongly condemned – at least for schoolboys.<\/p>\n In Magnet<\/em> 332 of June 20th 1914, Hamilton makes a typical comment, obviously from his own experiences (he was a keen gambler):<\/p>\n “You don’t believe in a system?”<\/p>\n “Yes, I do”, said the Bounder unexpectedly, “I’ve looked into it. There’s not one system: there are half a dozen that would be certain to win if the game were played fairly. That alone is a proof that it isn’t played fairly, for lots of people go there with good systems, and the casinos don’t go broke that I’ve heard of. I shouldn’t wonder if your system’s all right, given a fair game. But given a game in the hands of the most unscrupulous set of swindlers on the Continent… it’s the duffiest wheeze I ever heard of.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The readers of the Magnet<\/em> had been duly warned.<\/p>\n A traveller, observer, and commentator, Hamilton often took the opportunity to express his views – particularly in the Magnet<\/em>. To this extent he was an unusual writer of juvenile ficion. This aspect of Hamilton seems to have been missed by critics, who are more concerned with his creation of anti-hero Billy Bunter.<\/p>\n In Magnet<\/em> No. 1021 of 10th September 1927 the Greyfriars party on board Mr Vernon-Smith’s yacht has arrived at Singapore. Hamilton takes the opportunity to comment:<\/p>\n Among other sights, the Greyfriars fellows had a look at the immense new naval base under construction, and they found it interesting enough, and as they were not old enough to be taxpayers, they did not bother about the millions that were being flung away in that far corner of the East. Mr Vernon-Smith explained to them that the immense base was necessary for the security of the Empire, according to the best militay and navaI intelects available. “You see the next war if it comes at all, will be in the air, so naturally they devise a naval base to meet it. But bless you, they might have made it a cavalry barracks. I’m rather surprised that they didn’t really”.<\/p>\n Mr Vernon-Smith had the pleasure – or otherwise – of paying away a small fortune evey year in the shape of income tax, which doubtless caused him to regard such expensive futilities with a baleful eye.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Travel, sickness, and a heavy work load caused problem’s for Hamilton’s Publishers. The stock pile of scripts was always small, and any delay in receipt meant having to engage a substitute writer or writers, often members of the editorial staff. These substitute writers were instructed to imitate Hamilton’s style, but this was no easy matter. There was a difference between the Gem<\/em> style and the Magnet<\/em> style, for instance. While several writers achieved some resemblance, most failed; and this was apparent to numerous readers who wrote to the Amalgamated Press asking when the ‘real’ author would be back.<\/p>\n This fact would have surprised George Orwell, who suspected the Greyfriars stories were written by a team to a set style, which was easy to follow. Hamilton’s reply was that he had “written them all”.<\/p>\n Hamilton preferred not to acknowledge the substitute writers. He detested their use of his characters and pseudonyms. One writer actually killed off one of his characters. Others introduced new characters.<\/p>\n Greyfriars featured in all the 1683 Magnets<\/em> published, and Hamilton wrote 1380 of them (about 82%). The balance is credited to 25 authors, ranging from a single story to the 96 by George Richmond Samways. The latter joined the editoial staff in 1914 at the age of nineteen.<\/p>\n However. Hamilton wrote only about 66% of the St. Jim’s stories in Gem<\/em>. After 1926 he wrote few new St. Jim’s stories. In 1931 acting on a suggestion of a long-time reader, 404 ear1y stories were republished in Gem<\/em>, some with minor editorial adaptation.<\/p>\n By 1919 Magnet<\/em> and Gem<\/em> were extremely successful and both had a strong following of girl readers. Accordingly, Amalgamated Press decided to publish a girls’ school story paper.<\/p>\n The paper, School Friend<\/em>, would involve Cliff House, which since 1909 had occasionally appeared in Magnet<\/em>. In a ‘nice’ sense some Cliff House girls were friends of Greyfriars boys. So the characters were Hamilton creations, already known to Magnet<\/em> readers. (Magnet<\/em> sales were now greater than Gem<\/em>; in earlier days Gem<\/em> had been the more popular.) By now, Hamilton was writing 50,000 to 60,000 words each week, but he readily agreed to write an additional weekly story; and the first issue of the new paper was duly published on 17th May 1919, the Cliff House story being written by ‘Hilda Richards’.<\/p>\n But School friend<\/em> had a different editor to the boys’ paper, and there was concern that Hamilton would not cope. He was told that his priorities in order were, (1) Magnet<\/em>, (2) Gem<\/em> and (3) Boys Friend<\/em>. The latter had the Rookwood School stories by ‘Owen Conquest’. So after the first few issues of School Friend<\/em>, the stories were written by Horace Phillips as Hilda Richards. The result was two Cliff House Schools. School Friend<\/em> stories now had no connexion with Greyfriars in Magnet<\/em>. Hamilton retaliated by using his Cliff House girls more frequently in the Magnet<\/em> Greyfriars stories. During the twenties and thirties most readers believed that Frank and Hilda Richards were brother and sister.<\/p>\n In 1922 Hamilton bought two properties in Southern France, one at Menton. At this time he was hugely productive, often exceeding 80,000 words in a week. However in 1926 he returned to England and never again visited Europe.<\/p>\n Hamilton’s best known adventure series was King of the lslands<\/em>, which started in the first issue of Modern Boy<\/em> in Januay 1928. He also wrote the ‘schooldays” of the comedian Will Hay at ‘Bendover College’.CHARLES HAMILTON & THE ‘ALL BLACKS’<\/h5>\n
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\nThese shorter stories first appeared in 1915.
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