| bc | The Golden Hours Magazine, the Sydney Old Boys Book Club and The Golden Hours Club
[An article in 'Golden Years' no.10, 1990, 'The Golden Hours Reviewed' by Tom Ebbage, provided much of the following information.] The Golden Hours Club * These names may be transposed. The Golden Hours
Magazine "Produced in
Australia every now and then." See AUSTRALIAN BOOK COLLECTORS for a photograph of the shop. Many well-known Australian, British and New Zealand juvenile collectors and Amalgamated Press journalists of the 1920 - 1960 period wrote for 'The Golden Hours Magazine'. These included George Samways, H W Twyman, Bill Lofts, Derek Adley, V Colby, B Pate, E C Carter and of course Syd Smyth. Listed below are feature articles which may be of interest to collectors. If you require further information, please direct your query to John at opsbooks@aol.com
SOME
OF MY GOLDEN
HOURS, by H. Curtis. Boys and girls of today are, in my opinion, more intelligent and certainly better educated than in my young time. I do not think, however, they are as happy as we were or is life as interesting to them as it was for us. All my boyhood was spent in a large country town in Queensland where my father was a newsagent and stocked all English periodicals, comics and boys books so, I suppose, it was easy for me to become an avid reader of them at the age of eleven. (1913) For about five years I read every copy of the Magnet, Gem, Union Jack, Boys Friend, Boys Realm, Jester and serial stories in most of the comics. As a point of interest, twice during the war (I think it was in 1915) the English books did not arrive. We were told the boat bringing them had been sunk by a German submarine. Also, about this time, instead of coming every week two lots came every fortnight, and continued this way till the end of the war. As well as reading these books I became interested in the Boys Own Annual, Chums and the Scout, and for some years, received them as Christmas presents. I still have these books and of late years have become a modest collector of them. In spite of all this reading I still managed to play football in the winter and visit the old swimming hole in the summer, also became a Boy Scout. I don't know if all this reading had an adverse effect on my school work. I do know that I was always much nearer the bottom of the class than the top. Anyway, the good derived from reading would more than offset any loss. Our town was one of the few towns in Queensland that really got cold in the winter-time. And I still have vivid memories of nights with a cold southwesterly wind whistling around the outside of the house, of settling down in front of a log fire under the soft and cosy gas light, sometimes chasing crooks with Sexton Blake, or taking part in the fun at Greyfriars. Truly Golden Hours. In comparing the Boys Own Annual and Chums, it has been said that the stories in the Chums were more virile. This could be true but the Boys Own Annual was the more attractive book. It was printed on better paper and its articles on how to make things, while lacking in detail and for the most part impractical, gave lots of boys a great deal of pleasure. It did us anyway. About 1915 two mates and myself decided to build the B.O.P. canoe. After begging and borrowing sundry bits of wood and pieces of calico and spending most of our pocket money on other incidentals, a start was made on the great project. For about three months every Saturday morning was occupied in this most absorbing task. At last it was finished, painted and ready to be launched. It was decided that the old swimming hole would not be suitable for a trial run. Apart from being too small sabotage was feared from other swimmers. The only alternative was a water hole about 10 miles from town. We approached a local bottle dealer and, after a lot of persuasion this genial character told us that we could borrow his light cart but if we damaged it, he would knock our ruddy blocks off. So, early one Saturday morning, my pony, much against his will, was harnessed to the cart, the canoe loaded and carefully tied down, and off we went. On arrival at the water hole the canoe was unloaded, pony unharnessed and tied to a tree. Dressed in our canoeing costumes which of course consisted of 'nothing', the canoe was duly launched. After a few minor mishaps, three or four blissful hours were spent taking turn to paddle around the water hole. Then tragedy struck. One of the boys, paddling too close to the bank, hit a partly submerged log and the canoe sunk like a stone. After all attempts at salvage had failed, the pony was harnessed and sadly we turned for home. However, our sadness did not last long for, before home was reached, we had decided to forget the canoe and to build a land yacht, another B.O.P. project but that is another story. # Frank Richards,
the Down to Earth
Author, by JACK
CORBETT. As an example; take the famous "Barring Out" series of 1928. The fact that Skinner dropped a letter for the Headmaster to pick, up, was the whole scene which set in motion the well worked out ensuing plot. Everything hinged on this one action caused by the finding of a combination of ink and paper. In the year 1936 there was the famous "Courtney" series where the rascally Ponsonby contrives to place the blame on Frank Courtney, of Highcliffe for a very unpleasant theft which had taken place, but, Bunter who happens to be hiding as he so often did behind the old study screen, was there to act as an unseen witness and thus undo all the rascally Pon's scheming. Just the fact that a study screen happened to be there made a turning point in this wonderful series that brought the story to a satisfactory climax and one read the last chapters with the feeling of intense satisfaction. Going back to 1926, who would have thought that Harry Wharton's desire to play a good game of football would cost him dear. A whole period in his life was altered for the course of several months. Also, by the fact of a letter his uncle had written him which greatly upset the boy, was the prime factor in his losing self control and becoming a rebel and an outcast. We have instances at some lordly mansion of an ancient historical article such as a suit of armour which formed the vital factor in enabling some black sheep of a relative to get inside this contraption and endeavour to strike terror into the present heir, so that he himself might benefit from a sudden family death. This took place at Mauleverer Towers where the outcast Brian Mauleverer sought to get rid of the present heir, so that he himself might benefit. Going back to 1927 in the only (and genuine) reformation of Billy Bunter that was used as a grand Christmas series, the whole story swings round just a book, a copy of Charles Dickens 'A Christmas Carol'. Bunter reads this, and Frank Richards tells us convincingly and accurately how the magic of Dickens penetrates even the obtuse mind of the Fat Owl of the Remove. Harry Wharton and Co. almost died from shock when Bunter told them that Bunter Court was really only a myth and that he is never expecting a postal order and is very sorry that he ever borrowed from them. Again, Peter Todd thinks he is dreaming when Bunter says "I'm not going to sponge on you anymore, Toddy. I won't have tea with you because I can't stand my whack and I am not expecting a postal order". This genuine alteration of Bunter carries on into the next 'Magnet' but, towards the end, the magic of Dickens begins to wear thin and afterwards we get the same old hard up, ever hopeful, ever hungry, Bunter again still expecting the be-whiskered postal order and still telling the Greyfriars fellows about the wonders of Bunter Court, with the liveried footmen, the magnificent butler and the five Rolls Royce cars. The domestic ties; especially between two brothers, was another of the simple every day themes one can so often encounter in real life that was also used by the master hand. One can never forget the long Wingate series of 1925 where, once again, the whole of the story and a clever character study evolved round the simple fact of an elder brother's regard for his minor. There were no extraordinary circumstances forced into the story to heighten excitement and create interest. Human nature alone was the key point of this splendid story. How many times would the whole course of a story have been altered if such a simple article as a window catch, which was either broken or had been left unfastened, had not been introduced. And those occasions when, if some night prowler had failed to gain admittance to the school, or if Smithy, or one of the 'Blades' of the Lower school, had not been able to get back to their dormitories after a night at the "Cross Keys", many an event could not have taken place. There again just a simple window catch has been a turning point as in many of the stories. Many another instances could be mentioned such as; a long tablecloth under which Billy Bunter was able to conceal himself and overhear some talk of a plot which he was later, in spite of disbelievers, able to bring to the notice of those in power. A further point of interest is that in some [most] of Frank Richards stories, even the best, one knows previously the identity of the mysterious criminal but is compelled to go on reading just to see how Frank Richards arrives at the conclusion and how the wrong doer is brought to final justice. Some of the most unusual happenings ever introduced into the Greyfriars stories would be the probable message from some relative abroad concerning one of the boys, and even then quite a small matter, such as some internal family trouble, would be the means of a boy from overseas having to visit his family or guardian. These gave wonderful opportunities for the introduction of many of the famous travel series, whereby, over the years, the boys visited nearly every country in the world and their adventures were varied and packed with moments of tense excitement. Even in these cases Frank Richards never sought the impossible or the improbable, and that is why one can truthfully say he was the "Down-to-earth" author. It is interesting to know that the plots were never engineered on purpose for the sake of writing a story. Frank Richards himself has said that he had a hazy outline of the story in his mind, and then apparently once he had started typing on that famous old Remington of his the story and facts just filtered into place by sheer natural ability. In these plots mentioned, lies the secret of a great author's success by using the common objects of everyday life rather than seek the cheap and sensational from the use of the supernatural or bizarre. Perhaps that is why so many older people can fully appreciate the quality of the characterisation, the family life and the general everyday life atmosphere that prevails throughout the stories of Greyfriars, Rookwood and St. Jim's. Many people have tried to pinpoint the nostalgic magic which surges in the mind when reading these school stories, and apart from the qualities mentioned here, magic is the only word to describe their delightful elusion. In assessing the great qualities of Frank Richards as a hypothetical issue this will always be so. # Sign
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