‘The Magnet’ and the Regulation of War Enthusiasm

February 5, 2020 – 5:31 pm

I’ve been looking through the essays and conference papers that I’ve written over the years, and will be uploading several of them onto this site. The first is one that I gave at a conference a few years ago, where I looked at the Magnet boys’ paper, (which featured stories of Billy Bunter and Greyfriars […]

By George Simmers | Posted in attitudes, History, Magazines, popular culture, propaganda, publishing | Tags: , , , , | Comments (2)

Larkin and Greyfriars

September 28, 2017 – 10:11 am

Regular readers of this blog will know that I am rarely so enthusiastic as when exploring old issues of the Magnet comic, in which ‘Frank Richards’ each week delivered new instalments of the exploits of Harry Wharton, Billy Bunter and co. at Greyfriars School. Visiting Hull just in time to catch the deeply enjoyable Philip […]

By George Simmers | Posted in libraries, Magazines, novels, Poetry, popular culture, Thrillers | Tags: , , , , , | Comments (5)

Billy Bunter versus the Suffragettes

October 4, 2015 – 6:35 am

This November I’ll be giving a talk on the wartime Magnet comics to the Being Young in World War One conference in Manchester. I’ll be arguing that the comics had a nuanced approach to the war, remaining firmly patriotic while suggesting that the demands of war should not make people forget the civilised decencies of […]

By George Simmers | Posted in politics, popular culture | Tags: , , , | Comments (7)