theeveningnewslogo.jpg (4479 bytes)
SHORT STORY INDEX

Homepage    |   Index of Authors   |    Anonymous Stories   |   Author Biographies

The Evening News Collection   |   Miscellany    |   History of Short Stories

Artwork    |   History of Newspaper   |    Carmelite Street   |   Explanatory Notes

 

 

MISCELLANY AND TRIVIA

CONTENTS
Literary Editors
Staff Writers
The Forty Most Prolific Authors
Late Extra
"Evening News" Books


Literary Editors

Writing in The Mightier Sword (1966), an autobiographical book about her career as a Fleet Street journalist and author, Ursula Bloom recalls her association in the early 1930s with the Daily Mail and Evening News fiction editor Cecil Hunt (1902-1954), who took over the position for Associated Newspapers in 1930. At some point in the 1930s, David Wilson MacArthur (1903-1981) became fiction editor of both the Evening News and the Daily Mail. MacArthur, a prolific author of novels, articles and short fiction, contributed many of his own short stories to the Evening News in this period. His successor as fiction editor was the estimable John Millard who, like MacArthur, wrote a number of stories for the newspaper. Millard was a prolific writer of short stories and broadcast plays. In addition to his Evening News post, he once served as assistant editor of both John O'London's Weekly and The Strand Magazine. He was succeeded in the mid 1950s (or possibly as late as 1960, there is some conflicting information pertaining to this) by the Scottish-born Edward Cranston Campbell (1916-2006), who served as literary editor until shortly before the newspaper ceased publication in 1980.

Edward Campbell was certainly an interesting man. A somewhat colourful personality, he is fondly remembered today by his former colleagues on the Evening News. Born in Glasgow on August 26, 1916, Campbell had a deep passion for the circus and was himself a trainer of wild animals. He was known in particular as a lion-tamer. He once choreographed a wild animal display act at Glasgow Zoo, before being called up to serve in the R.A.F. during World War Two. Campbell also had a profound interest in magic, and was personally acquainted with several famous magicians and illusionists. His early career in journalism began with a stint as a reporter on the Scottish newspaper the Daily Record. After Campbell's marriage to Mary Patricia Sworder in 1947, the couple moved to Sevenoaks in Kent, where they raised three children. Although he also worked on the Evening Standard and the Sunday Dispatch, his many years in Fleet Street were dominated by his long tenure as literary editor on the Evening News. Raymond A. Lee (1938- ), a writer who sold three of his short stories to Campbell, recalls him fondly. Lee remembers that Campbell was "dedicated to finding the best quality" among the many stories submitted to the newspaper. He never showed favoritism, although he was most encouraging to new writers and more than willing to nurture "potential good authorship." Considering the fact that Campbell had to deal with as many as 300 submissions in a given week, it is a testament to his professionalism and expertise as an editor that he found time to offer advice and encouragement to budding young writers. Lee is one such contibutor who will always remember Campbell with affection. After his retirement from the Evening News, Campbell kept up his interest in mysticism, publishing the reference book The People of the Secret in 1983 under the pseudonym Ernest Scott. Campbell also maintained his lifelong fascination with circus animals, giving a lecture to the Circus Zoological Society as late as 2005. He was 89 years old when he died on April 4, 2006. His wife of 59 years passed away in the same week. An obituary for Edward Campbell appeared in the May 18, 2006 issue of the entertainment magazine The Stage.

edwardcampbell.jpg (15185 bytes)
Edward Campbell with his lions at Andy Wilson's zoo, Glasgow in 1940

If anyone has any more information to share about Campbell, Millard, MacArthur, Hunt or any other literary editors on the Evening News, I would be very pleased to hear from them. I am particularly interested in knowing more about the specific dates of tenure for each of the literary editors, as well as information about any predecessors who held the position before Cecil Hunt.


Staff Writers

Below is a checklist of staff writers and journalists on the Evening News who also wrote short stories for the newspaper.

Arthur Machen (writer of feature articles and book reviewer from 1910-1921, hugely influential author of supernatural fiction)
William McCartney (political satirist)
A. Bonnet Laird
John Connell
Claude F. Luke
L. F. Lampitt (features editor and book reviewer)
Stephen Williams (drama critic)
Dudley Pope (defence correspondent, later a novelist)
Leslie Thomas (reporter, later a novelist)
D. Wilson MacArthur (fiction editor)
John Millard (fiction editor)
Edward Campbell (fiction editor)
Colin Howard
Bill Boorne
Gerald Bowman
Frank O'Connor
Michael Gannon
Bill McGowran
Ken Follett (later a novelist)

Note: There are no doubt many more writers, in addition to those that appear on the above list, who worked for Associated Newspapers and had their fiction published in the Evening News (and indeed other periodicals). Certainly a number of journalists on the Daily Mail contributed short stories to the Evening News. It is also highly likely that many of the stories that went uncredited in the early years of the newspaper's history were written by staff writers.


The Forty Most Prolific Authors

Below is a checklist (a final league table, if you like!) of the forty most prolific short story authors in the Evening News. More information about these and other writers can be found on the Author Biographies page.

youngpaulfeakes.jpg (11686 bytes)
      Paul Feakes (1898-1985)

1.   Paul Feakes - 397 stories
2.   C. T. Stoneham - 334 stories
3.   F. Keston Clarke - 243 stories
4.   Eric Allen - 236 stories
5.   Colin Howard - 214 stories
6.   Philip Neville - 204 stories
7.   Howard Jones - 197 stories
8.   F. G. Turnbull - 194 stories
9.   Rearden Conner - 188 stories
10. L. S. Howarth - 169 stories
11. Michael Kent - 167 stories
12. W. P. Speechley - 162 stories
13. H. P. Watts - 151 stories
14. Donald Gilchrist - 136 stories
15. Alan Hyder - 131 stories
16. Frank King - 118 stories
17. D. H. Barber - 116 stories
18. Herbert Harris - 106 stories
19. Frank Selsey - 106 stories
20. Rosemary Timperley - 101 stories
21. H. A. Manhood - 97 stories
22. Will Scott - 94 stories
23. Eleanor Burford - 91 stories
24. Ronald R. Smith - 88 stories
25. Jane Locke - 87 stories
26. Ursula Bloom - 87 stories
27. Trevor Allen - 80 stories
28. C. Gordon Glover - 80 stories
29. Clay Allison - 77 stories
30. Charles Irving - 73 stories
31. J. Jefferson Farjeon - 69 stories
32. Jeffry Scott - 69 stories
33. Michael Hastings - 69 stories
34. Jack McLaren - 64 stories
35. F. Morton Howard - 63 stories
36. John Newton Chance - 62 stories
37. Mark Byrne - 60 stories
38. John Creasey - 60 stories
39. Kenneth Hayes - 62 stories
40. A. M. Burrage - 59 stories


Late Extra

lateextra.jpg (35798 bytes)

A Miscellany by "Evening News" Writers, Artists, & Photographers
Edited by John Millard
Published by Associated Newspapers, Ltd.

This highly collectible book, although undated, is believed to have been published in 1952. Late Extra includes an introduction by John N. Marshall, who at the time was editor of the Evening News. It also contains an afterword by Evening News literary editor John Millard, in which he reflects on how the book came about. Late Extra was the first of its kind in that it was produced entirely by Evening News staff. It contains a miscellany of original material by writers, artists and photographers who worked on the newspaper. The book is made up of articles on a variety of subjects, as well as cartoons, artwork, photographs and three short stories. A full list of the contents of this book can be found below:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword by John N. Marshall
The Chitty Goes to Cricket by John Marshall
Shark by John Connell
Courts Year by Year by James A. Jones
A Village Heroine by Harold Walton
London Laughs by Lee
Your "X" on the Ballot Paper by Stanley Dobson
Old Gilpin's Garden by L. F. Lampitt (this feature appears throughout the book)
Drama as a Social Force by Stephen Williams
Interested in Faces? (photographs)
This Way to the Woods (photographs)
Mrs. Smith's Gladys Started it All (photographs)
Why Are Film Stars? by Jympson Harman
Children's Cross Word
Into the Sun by Fieldfare
Horseless Generals
You See Him Everywhere by Bill McGowran
What Has Happened to the Oak?
The Wrong Carrots by L. F. Lampitt (short story)
Chaotics (this feature appears throughout the book)
London Laughs by Lee
Football as an Industry by J. G. Orange
London 100 years Ago by Peter Jackson
Ape, Spy, and Jehu Junior by John Arlott
These Pictures Made News (photographs)
"Let's go on Somewhere" by Bill Boorne
London 200 Years Ago by Peter Jackson
Cricket for Thrills by E. M. Wellings
London Laughs by Lee
My Centre Court Friends by H. R. McDonald
They Call it "The Rag Trade" by Gwen Robyns
"Snippets"
Paul Temple and the Nightingale by Francis Durbridge (short story)
When the Army Marches Off to Law by Michael Gannon
Motorless Peers
The Life and Strange Death of Eleanor Marx by Felix Barker
A Niece at the B.B.C. by Leslie Ayre
Yes, this will be my Fourth Coronation (photographs)
The First Ten Years are the Worst (photographs)
Ballerinas of To-morrow by Duncan Harrison
Next - the Heli-Bus by Cyril Birks
London Laughs by Lee
Crime on the Telephone by Sam Jackett
Senior Cross Word
London 300 Years Ago by Peter Jackson
With Nothing Up His Sleeve by John Millard
Crossroads by Frank O'Connor (short story)
Back to Magic by Gerald Bowman
Home Again by Tom Downes
No More Acorn Coffee by Frank Tole
Wild Life in London by Frances Pitt
It's All in the Day's Work by "Staff Photographers"
Land Ahoy! by Colin Howard and Gus
Motor Sport by W. R. Paulson
Doctor and Patient Should Work Together as a Team by "A Family Doctor"
Bridge - Problem for Detectives by Terence Reese
God and the Average Man by the writer of "A Saturday Reflection"
Chess Twin-Problem
"Well, I Know it for a Fact" by James Anderson
Statesmen are People, Too by C. F. Melville
That's a Good Idea by Rosalie Shann and Vivien Hislop
Coaching Our New Athletes by H. J. Oaten
Great Fighters by J. T. Hulls
Talk of the City by W. Ernest Smith
How "Late Extra" Began by John Millard
Solutions to Problems


"Evening News" Books

In addition to Late Extra and the two volumes that comprise The Evening News Collection, a number of books were produced by Associated Newspapers (and other publishers) that featured material originally printed in the Evening News. Several of these were by Henry Bridges Fearon (nephew of P. H. Fearon, the Evening News political cartoonist), who under the pen-name "Fieldfare" wrote a weekly column from the 1920s onwards detailing walks in rural areas of the Home Counties and Thames Valley district. Fearon's love of the countryside inspired thousands of readers of the Evening News for many years. Another long-running series in the Evening News was the immensely popular nature column written by the photographer and naturalist Frances Pitt (1888-1964). Pitt's wildlife articles ran in the Evening News from the 1920s through the 1960s. To my knowledge none of her Evening News articles were reprinted in book form, apart from one piece in the aforementioned Late Extra. Frances Pitt did however publish a number of books, including her autobiography Country Years (1961) in which she talks about her life in Shropshire. Also worthy of mention here is the "Courts Day by Day" column by James A. Jones, which ran in the Evening News for decades. Jones' entertaining commentaries on the daily business of a Magistrates' court were considered essential reading by many Londoners. A small selection of these were collected in book form in 1946 (details below).

All of the books listed below include material from the Evening News.

Dilly and Dally (1919)
By William McCartney and Poy (P. H. Fearon). Published by Thornton Butterworth.
A series of political cartoon strips taken from the Evening News and the Daily Mail.

Who Told You That? (1921)
By Quex (pseudonym of G. H. F. Nichols). Published by Stanley Paul & Co.
Social gossip and before and after-dinner stories from the Evening News.

Crime and Insanity. Murder & Its Punishment. Musings on Murder. (1925)
By The Right Honourable Lord Darling. Published by J. A. Allen.
Includes three articles printed in the Evening News in 1924.

London Town (1926)
By G. H. F. Nichols ("Quex" of Evening News). Published by Partridge, 1926.
Social gossip from the "Man About Town" column in the Evening News.

Tokefield Papers (1927)
By Frank Swinnerton. Published by George H. Doran.
A selection of essays, many of which appeared in the Evening News.

The Secret Places: Being a Chronicle of Vagabondage (1929)
By R. Francis Foster. Published by Elkin Mathews and Marrot.
A chronicle of the author, Reginald Francis Foster (1896-1975), and his friend "Longshanks" travels in Sussex, Kent and Surrey. Most of the contents of this book originally appeared in the Evening News.

500 of the Best Cockney War Stories (1930)
Published by Associated Newspapers, Ltd.
Illustrated by Bert Thomas, this is a landmark collection of reminiscences of the First World War, originally published in the Evening News.

Tramping Round London. Forty-One Walks in London's Country (1933)
By Fieldfare. Published by Country Life.

Seeley-Bohn at School (1939)
By Donald Gilchrist. Published by Longmans & Co.
Adventures of the schoolboy character who starred in several of Gilchrist's Evening News stories.

Matt (1944)
By Alan Hyder. Published by Quality Press.
Book-length outing for Matt, a young Jamaican boy created by Hyder, who featured in many tales published in the Evening News.

Hitler Passed This Way (1945)
Compiled by Crawford Snowden. Published by the London Evening News.
A selection of photographs taken before and after the Blitzkrieg of 1940, illustrating the extent of bomb damage to the capital. A reminder of the havoc caused by German attacks on London during World War Two.

Courts Day by Day from "The Evening News" (1946)
By James A. Jones. Published by Sampson Low, Marston & Co.
A compilation of sketches detailing various cases in the Magistrates' courts, with an introduction by Evening News editor Guy Schofield. James A. Jones' London Courts column ran in the Evening News for many years. This compilation includes Jones' first-hand account of the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial of 1945.

Kallee and Other Stories (1947)
by F. G. Turnbull. Published by Sampson Low, Marston & Co.
A collection of Turnbull's nature stories, many of which first appeared in the Evening News.

Thirty Walks With Fieldfare (1948)
By Fieldfare. Published by Clerke and Cockerman.

More Walks With Fieldfare of the London Evening News (1949)
By Fieldfare. Published by Associated Newspapers, Ltd.

The Magic of Matt (1950)
By Alan Hyder. Published by P. R. Gawthorn.
A sequel to the earlier Matt (1944). This volume of Matt's escapades was illustrated by Hyder himself.

London Laughs (1951)
By Lee. Published by Associated Newspapers, Ltd.
A selection of cartoons by Joe Lee that originally appeared in the Evening News from 1934 through 1951.

New Walks With Fieldfare of the London Evening News (1951)
By Fieldfare. Published by Associated Newspapers, Ltd.

London is Stranger Than Fiction (1951)
By Peter Jackson. Published by Associated Newspapers, Ltd.
A collection of cartoons detailing facts about London that were first published in the Evening News.

Walking Again With Fieldfare of the London Evening News (1952)
By Fieldfare. Published by Associated Newspapers, Ltd.

The Evening News London Yearbook 1953 (1953)
Published by Associated Newspapers, Ltd.

London Explorer: A Further Selection of Cartoons Illustrating Fascinating Facts About London - Specially Prepared for the Evening News (1953)
By W. Crawford Snowden & Peter Jackson. Published by Associated Newspapers, Ltd.

The Evening News London Yearbook 1954 (1954)
Published by Associated Newspapers, Ltd.

The World's Strangest Stories (1955)
Edited by L. F. Lampitt. Published by Associated Newspapers, Ltd.

Twenty Walks in Buckinghamshire (1955)
By Fieldfare. Published by Associated Newspapers, Ltd.

Twenty Walks in Hertfordshire (1955)
By Fieldfare. Published by Associated Newspapers, Ltd.

Twenty Walks in Berkshire (1955)
By Fieldfare. Published by Associated Newspapers, Ltd.

Twenty Walks in Essex (1955)
By Fieldfare. Published by Associated Newspapers, Ltd.

Twenty Walks in Kent (1955)
By Fieldfare. Published by Associated Newspapers, Ltd.

Twenty Walks in Surrey (1955)
By Fieldfare. Published by Associated Newspapers, Ltd.

Young Seeley-Bohn (1956)
By Donald Gilchrist. Published by Faber & Faber.
More adventures of the schoolboy who featured in Gilchrist's Evening News tales.

Round Walks in the Home Counties (1956)
By Fieldfare. Published by Associated Newspapers, Ltd.

Garden Gadgets (1960)
By Roger Ward. Published by Associated Newspapers, Ltd.
Over 150 gardening tips from the pages of the Evening News.

Country Walks Around London (1967)
By Fieldfare. Published by Associated Newspapers, Ltd.

Hayseeds (1971)
By Hargreaves. Published by MacMillan.
A collection of animal cartoons by Harry Hargreaves (1922-2004) that were originally published in the Evening News.

Hayseeds 2 (1972)
By Hargreaves. Published by MacMillan.
A further selection of Hargreaves' "The Hayseeds" cartoon strips, reprinted from the Evening News.

Come Riding (1975)
By Ivor Herbert. Published by Chancerel.
Cartoon strips from the Evening News with information on how to ride and care for your horse.

Fresh Water Angling (1975)
By John Mitchell. Published by Chancerel.
An illustrated guide to various aspects of angling originally published in the Evening News.

Plain Sailing: Cruising (1975)
By Crab Searl. Published by Chancerel.
Instructional cartoon strips from the Evening News.

But Mostly Laughter (1990)
By Paul Feakes. Edited by I. & S. Payne. Published by Queenscourt Publishing.
A posthumous collection of short stories by Paul Feakes. Most of the stories in this volume were originally published in the Evening News.

 

 

Copyright © 2006 Richard Simms