Boys of England
Boys of England was a British boys' periodical issued weekly from 1866 to 1899, and has been called "the leading boys' periodical of the nineteenth century".[1] The magazine was based in London.[2]
Boys of England was edited by the publisher and former Chartist Edwin John Brett. Articles exhorted boys to participate in healthy outdoor games and to contribute some of their pocket money to the journal's lifeboat fund which purchased the first Southend Lifeboat in 1879 (Brett named the vessel after the magazine and himself).[3]
By the 1870s it had a circulation of 250,000, and a mainly working-class readership. By comparison to middle-class competitors such as The Boy's Own Paper, Boys of England was relatively unconcerned with Empire. Subject matters which predominated were history, rebels, crime, romance, the paranormal, and public schools.[1]
At some point Boys of England absorbed Jack Harkaway's Journal for Boys.[2]
References
- ^ a b Christopher Banham, "England and America Against the World": Empire and the USA in Edwin J. Brett's Boys of England, 1866-99, Victorian Periodicals Review, 40:2, 2007, pp.151-71
- ^ a b "Boys of England". Stanford University Libraries. Nineteenth Century Collections Online: British Theatre, Music, and Literature: High and Popular Culture. 1867. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
- ^ "Safe at Sea". www.southendtimeline.com. Archived from the original on 6 December 2010. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
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