Happy Birthday Bunty!
Posted: 18 Jan 2018, 18:34
Today marks the 60th birthday of D C Thomson's girls' picture paper Bunty. First published in January 1958 Bunty would outlive all the other Thomson picture papers, for both girls and boys, that came after her. Surviving for 2,249 over 43 years and spawning 50 annuals, 42 summer specials, 455 picture story libraries and several collections of Bunty stories in nostalgia volumes.
When the editorial staff at Thomson's came to create this new title for girls they wanted it to appeal to girls aged 10 to 14 and they wanted its title to somehow represent those ordinary, mostly working class, girls who were their target readership and therefore they decided they didn't want a Marilyn or a Mirabelle so, instead, they came up with Bunty, a name but then not a name, a pet name derived from other names more often than not. A name that harked back to the heroine of the very first story in Thomson's very first title for girls, "Bunty Brown - she couldn't keep out of mischief" who was the cover star of the very first issue of Thomson's "Girls' Weekly" published on 5th October 1912. A girl, like Mary Simpson, forty-six years later, who was on her way to start a new school....
When the editorial staff at Thomson's came to create this new title for girls they wanted it to appeal to girls aged 10 to 14 and they wanted its title to somehow represent those ordinary, mostly working class, girls who were their target readership and therefore they decided they didn't want a Marilyn or a Mirabelle so, instead, they came up with Bunty, a name but then not a name, a pet name derived from other names more often than not. A name that harked back to the heroine of the very first story in Thomson's very first title for girls, "Bunty Brown - she couldn't keep out of mischief" who was the cover star of the very first issue of Thomson's "Girls' Weekly" published on 5th October 1912. A girl, like Mary Simpson, forty-six years later, who was on her way to start a new school....