Boys Own Paper August 1950

Condition: Fine. Cover: split to cover along spine, edge wear.

Len Hutton on Cricket Captaincy

Pages of stories, articles & illustrations, full of vintage adverts Boy's Own Paper was a British story paper aimed at young and teenage boys, published from 1879 to 1967. Often published were puzzles, adventure stories and essay competitions.
Many famous authors contributed to the paper. W.G. Grace wrote for several issues, along with Arthur Conan Doyle, Jules Verne and R.M. Ballantyne. Baden-Powell, founder of the Scout Movement, was a regular columnist and urged readers to live "to live clean, manly and Christian lives". Less well known writers included William Gordon Stables,W. E. Cule, Sid G. Hedges and Hugh Pembroke Vowles.


The idea for the publication was as a means to encourage younger children to read and also instill Christian morals during their formative years. The first issue went on sale on January 19, 1879.

In 1939 it was taken over by Lutterworth Press, and in 1963 by Purnell and Sons Ltd. It was published at the end of its life in 1967 by BPC Publishing Ltd, who are believed to have started publishing the paper in 1965.

The paper was published weekly following the school year (Autumn through to Summer) until November 1913, when it became a monthly. In total, 2511 issues of the paper were published. . From 1879 onwards each year's issues were bound together and sold as the Boy's Own Annual. In the initial few years, one could purchase the covers at the end of the publishing year and have the weekly issues bound. This produced some interesting minor variations in order and contents. The Annuals ceased publication after the 1940-41 edition due to wartime paper rationing. The Annuals included all of the text of the weekly (and later monthly) issues, with additional illustrations. There was an extra Christmas Number (edition) magazine from 1884-85 until 1912-13 and an extra Summer Number from 1884-85 until 1900-01. Later attempts at a smaller format annual, under Jack Cox's editorship, were the Boys Own Companion from 1959 through 1963, and the Boys Own Annual II from 1964-65 through 1975-76.