''The Boys' Friend'' was a British

story paper A story paper is a periodical publication similar to a literary magazine, but featuring illustrations and text stories, and aimed towards children and teenagers. Also known in Britain as "boys' weeklies", story papers were phenomenally popula ...

of the early 20th century, published by

Amalgamated Press The Amalgamated Press (AP) was a British newspaper and magazine publishing company founded by journalist and entrepreneur Alfred Harmsworth (1865–1922) in 1901, gathering his many publishing ventures together under one banner. At one point the ...

from 1895 to 1927.

Overview

''The Boys' Friend'' was a large, tabloid-sized story paper priced one penny (later 2d). It was produced by

, and was part of Alfred Harmsworth's campaign to put the

Penny Dreadfuls Penny dreadfuls were cheap popular serial literature produced during the 19th century in the United Kingdom. The pejorative term is roughly interchangeable with penny horrible, penny awful, and penny blood. The term typically referred to a sto ...

out of business. The paper generally contained 4-5 serial story installments, printed in very small text (the paper was 16 pages long). A 10,000 word complete story was also presented in each issue. The order of stories would be rotated so that each serial had an instalment on the cover (with accompanying large title and illustration). At other times the complete story would feature on the cover. The stories were typical of the '' Boys Own'' fare of the era, with adventure, detective and western stories predominating. Several Amalgamated Press characters such as

Sexton Blake Sexton Blake is a fictional British detective, whose adventures captivated readers for over eight decades from 1893 to 1978. Blake featured in more than 4,000 stories by approximately 200 different authors, making him one of the most prolifica ...

Nelson Lee Nelson Lee (born October 16, 1975; Chinese name: 李志傑) is a Taiwanese-Canadian actor. He is best known for portraying Senator Hamato Xiono in ''Ahsoka'', and Dragon King in '' Stargirl''. Life and career Lee was born in Taipei, Taiwan on O ...

, Jack, Sam & Pete and

Buffalo Bill William Frederick Cody (February 26, 1846January 10, 1917), better known as Buffalo Bill, was an American soldier, bison hunter, and showman. One of the most famous figures of the American Old West, Cody started his legend at the young age ...

appeared, in either serials or complete stories. Later issues featured stories of Jimmy Silver of Rookwood School, written by Charles Hamilton, creator of

Billy Bunter William George Bunter is a fictional schoolboy created by Charles Hamilton using the pen name Frank Richards. He features in stories set at Greyfriars School, a fictional English public school in Kent, originally published in the boys' weekly ...

. The paper would also run an editorial page, mostly given over to the editor answering questions from readers, other short articles appeared in the paper, primarily concentrating on tips and facts revolving around sport, particularly

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

and

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

. Other articles on emigration to parts of the British Empire, and about life at sea, appeared frequently. ''The Boys' Friend'' was the companion to ''

The Boys' Herald ''The Boys' Herald'' was a British boys' story paper published by the Amalgamated Press in the early 20th century. Launched in August 1903, it was the third in a trio of successful boys’ publications under the direction of Hamilton Edwards, fo ...

'' and '' The Boy's Realm''. It was printed on paper with a slight green tint, and was therefore referred to by collectors as "The green 'un". All three of the papers were served by the same writers: Sidney Drew, Maxwell Scott, Herbert Maxwell, S. Clark Hook, T.C. Bridges, Reginald Way, Henry Johnson, Alec G. Pearson, Henry St. Jon, John Tregellis, John Hunter,

William Murray Graydon William Murray Graydon (February 4, 1864 – April 5, 1946) was an extremely prolific American writer who also wrote under the pen-names Alfred Armitage, William Murray, and Tom Olliver. He wrote adventure, historical fiction and Sexton Blake ...

, Robert Leighton and Arthur S. Hardy.

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References

External links

Magazine Data File

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boys' Friend, The British boys' story papers Magazines established in 1895 Magazines disestablished in 1927 Publications of Sexton Blake