Phoenix's Future Plans

[stevezodiac]

Apologies but I'm having to use my phone camera since my laptop bit the dust last November. The article is about the book Ballet Shoes published in the 1930s.

[Phoenix]

I quite like that novel, Steve. The film with that actress who played Hermione Granger, whose name I can't just recall, was a bit naff though.

[stevezodiac]

Yes and it was only 85 minutes. How do you condense a 300+ page novel into less than an hour and a half? The BBC TV version from 1977 is available at 150 minutes though.

[Phoenix]

Just an update on my progress deciding on the list of the serials that will make the cut for BUNTY AND HER SISTERS - The Great Stories. I have two positive lists, the certainties and the possibles. The remainder that will not feature will be placed in a third list, which I am calling 'The Empties And A Penny On The Bottle', an expressive Lancashire term. To reach my decisions I am reading several episodes of every serial in the eleven DCT story papers for girls, which will inevitably take a while.

Regarding the presentation of the synopses, I will not be using the three-line system that I used for THIS WAS THE WIZARD, despite saying that I would, because, with the benefit of hindsight, it was, and would be again, too restrictive. The thirteen summaries to a page will also therefore be given the boot. This decision will allow me to be more thorough where long serials, and series such as The Four Marys, are concerned. Therefore the bottom of a page will not necessarily be the end of a synopsis.

Further updates as and when. Must be making a move now as I'm picking Lois up from school in just over an hour, and I have a couple of things to do first. I'll take a book with me to read while I'm waiting - Biddy's Secret by Elsie Oxenham, which just arrived this morning from Caroline & Dominic O'Sullivan, who trade as Encore Books if anybody is interested. They are extremely reliable (http://www.encorebooks.co.uk : Tel:- 0118 962 4709). I'm not their agent, by the way!! Just impressed by their professionalism.

[Phoenix]

I'm picking Lois up from school in just over an hour

That task was completed with a smidgen of difficulty. She had walked down on the other side of the road as usual, but right past my car. Her friend Faye, who was about 15 yards behind her, walking towards her mother's car, shouted to me that Lois had passed my car and was on her way down the road, so I asked her to get a bit of a lick on, catch her up, and get her head out of the clouds. All got sorted out, and tonight I took her to her ballet class as usual, and waited for her in The Badger with just a half of Tribute. On the way home she wanted to go to Asda to spend her £2.50 that I owed her because I gave her brother, Alex, that amount after school yesterday. She seems to have overlooked the £6 that she borrowed from me, and still owes, for a tin of slime that she bought in St Ives on Tuesday!! I presume I will be picking her up again tomorrow, but I get a week off next week as it's half term, so I'll be working long hours on the preparation for my new book. I won't be all that surprised though if at some point she turns up on my doorstep, possibly with Alex, more probably with Faye, but I wouldn't rule out both of them. Alex might even bring Autumn. Under those circumstances I suppose that will mean McDonalds again!

[Phoenix]

Great news!! Russ is going to bring me lots of boxes from the lock-up in Penzance this evening. With any luck some will contain issues of MANDY, others will hopefully be overflowing with JUDY, DIANA, DEBBIE, EMMA, M&J, NIKKI, TRACY, SPELLBOUND, my nearly-complete collection of SUZY, and lots more issues of BUNTY. I mean, come on, how am I expected to write a book if I don't have the necessary reference materials to hand? I can't keep everything in my head, and I can't be going to the lock-up every time I need to check a piece of information!!!

[Phoenix]

Great news!!

Unfortunately not. Sixteen boxes from the lock-up but not a Thomson girls' paper in any of them. There is a shedload of SCHOOL FRIEND from number 1 (May 20 1950), several years worth of THE CHAMPION, also from number 1 (January 28 1922), and a lovely bound volume for 1947 (issues 1301 - 1352 : January 4 - December 27), a pile of issues of TAMMY, again from number 1 (February 6 1971), and masses of issues of THE VICTOR. Fortunately there are more boxes in the lock-up but I'll have to wait till a week on Sunday to get my mitts on the contents because it's half term, and Russ and Rach have taken the week off work for a family jaunt up North. Lois and Alex have set their alarm clocks for 6am!! Not to worry as I've plenty to be getting on with, but that is easy to say, not quite so easy to do, I suspect.

[Phoenix]

On the plus side, if there is such a thing today, I've just dug out a couple of books by Enid Blyton that I have never seen mentioned in any books about her work by Blyton scholars. These have been frequently read, but as far as I'm aware only by my mother, and possibly my younger brother, who passed away several years ago, and of course me. Their titles are Tales Of Ancient Greece and Tales Of Robin Hood. Each has 126 pages, and they are smaller than A5.

[Phoenix]

I've been sitting in the sun outside a pub in Penzance for three hours this afternoon, wondering how exactly to modify my writing plans if the remaining boxes in the lock-up don't contain DCT girls' story papers. The initial conclusion that I reached was to pack it in completely because I just wouldn't have the heart for it. However, my mood improved somewhat about half an hour after leaving the pub, when I popped into a charity shop and saw a small pile of issues of THE HOTSPUR and THE WIZARD, both of which are text-story papers, all dated between April 1949 and August 1950, and priced at £1.50 each. I selected twelve of them, five issues of THE WIZARD and obviously seven issues of THE HOTSPUR and paid the £18. I knew that I already had all these issues but they are in the lock-up so my thinking now is to read all of them from cover to cover over the next six days at two per day. I hope that by then my mood will have improved enormously, so much so that I will have convinced myself that the remaining boxes in the lock-up contain my DCT story papers for girls after all. When I have finished reading them I will take them down to the Hospice Care charity shop opposite the Copperhouse pub, and then nip in for a pint, so bookending the entire experience.

[Phoenix]

I've been at a bit of a loose end today, lethargic as well, so to liven myself up a bit I decided for the first time ever to add up all the issues of DCT's story papers for girls that I haven't yet acquired, from my notes of course, as many of my actuals are in the lock-up. Below, in alphabetical order, are the totals I still need if I am ever to get full runs. I won't manage it anyway because I am not planning on buying any more. I'm pretty sure I have noted down the key details of most, if not all, of the serials in the missing issues, from the bound volumes in the British Library, although in some cases, especially when the story seemed to be little more than a space filler, I will not have written down for myself a synopsis of any great length. As a consequence those stories will not feature in my next book. After all, the supplementary title will be The Great Stories, and in any case I do expect some readers to disagree with some of the selections I do make.

BUNTY - 137
DEBBIE - 62
DIANA - 173
EMMA - 1
JUDY - 50
M&J -14
MANDY - 93
NIKKI - 1
SPELLBOUND - 1
SUZY - 88
TRACY - 13

[peace355]

With only those missing, it means you have an impressive number of girls comics! The closest I think I have to full collection is M&J which is about 20 short. Though when it gets to the stage of tracking individual issues it gets harder!

[Phoenix]

The closest I think I have to full collection is M&J which is about 20 short. Though when it gets to the stage of tracking individual issues it gets harder!

I can certainly agree with that, but I have been buying DCT story papers in for a long time, Lorraine, from assorted sources, eBay, comic fairs, mainly but not exclusively in the North West, dealers, or simply sellers, who were advertising in BOOK AND MAGAZINE COLLECTOR. I came across the London dealer Norman Shaw, sadly no longer with us, via his weekly advert in EXCHANGE AND MART, and visited his house in Upper Norwood/Crystal Palace countless times, and of course his onetime assistant, Robin Osborne, who later rented premises in Gipsy Hill. It was at a book fair in Pudsey in Yorkshire where I met Billy Nicholls, my long-time friend who sadly died a few months ago.

Whenever I went to Norman's 'treasure house' I would take an early train from Liverpool Lime Street with hope in my heart. His collection of comics and story papers for sale was mind-boggling though, so I never felt in advance that I would be wasting my time or my money. He did find it quite amusing that I looked through all the story papers that I didn't already have kneeling on the floor in his hallway. He didn't mind though, and periodically he would bring me a cup of coffee. I would leave there many hours later with my bags full of lovely issues of ADVENTURE, THE HOTSPUR etcetera. I didn't start collecting DCT's girls' papers until much later, and initially the bulk of those came from my late friend Colin Morgan, who lived in a village called Groes, not that far from Denbigh, the rest from Robin. Towards the end of my collecting spree, I bought lots of pre-war and early wartime issues of ADVENTURE from Crosby (Merseyside) dealer, David Moore, who has also passed on with a debilitating illness. Since then, the story papers have made a steady beeline for my front door. I have now reached the point where I don't really need any more story papers, for boys or girls. My father used to refer to a similar situation where food was concerned as "an ample sufficiency". My money will now, by and large, be staying in my pocket!

[big bad bri]

BUNTY - 137
DEBBIE - 62
DIANA - 173
EMMA - 1
JUDY - 50
M&J -14
MANDY - 93
NIKKI - 1
SPELLBOUND - 1
SUZY - 88
TRACY - 13

The completest in me would need to finish these Derek as you are so near complete sets of emma ,spellbound ,nikki i wouldn't be able to rest in my quest if for example i needed 1 more buster or whizzer and chips,i need 2 more cheeky and they never seem to come up on ebay

[Phoenix]

The completest in me would need to finish these Derek

I think this issue has come up before, Bri, although exactly when and where I can't remember. I have really only ever needed enough instalments of serials in the boys' or girls' papers to write decent synopses. In both cases, when my collections were not really adequate to do so to my satisfaction, I have always gone to the British Library for the relevant information, often down to London and back home on the same day, usually possible if I order by phone the bound volumes that I need to consult a couple of days beforehand, because the volumes might be stored in the library's Boston Spa facility in Yorkshire, and would need to be brought down to London for me. There must be plenty of vans going one way or the other every day.

[Phoenix]

Just spent a couple of hours in the Copperhouse pub with Russ, Lois, Alex, and Autumn. A chippy meal followed, and then we went up to Hayle station to pick up Rachel, who has been in Bristol for a couple of days. As it is the weekend, I will have plenty of time to myself, unless the youngsters turn up on the doorstep of course, to make a serious start on B and HS. Also, hopefully we will empty the lock-up at some point on Sunday. I plan to make my final trip to the Hospice Care charity shop tomorrow to hand over a final shedload of books that are no longer of any use to me, which should provide enough room in one of the bedrooms for the JUDYs and MANDYs. As Rach was in Bristol overnight, I took Lois to school this morning for the first time ever, and Russ picked her up as she had a dental appointment. I just looked after Alex until they got home. As you can tell, we are like a well-oiled engine. However, Lois now has blotches on her arms, for which she blames her Hallowe'en dress, which she spent an absolute age choosing. We'll keep an eye on the issue, don't worry. It didn't inhibit her ballet dancing last night, which was only scheduled to last 45 minutes, so Alex and I waited for her in the Badger in Lelant. I only had a half of Tribute or some such, and Alex had a bottle of decent quality orange juice. There was one incident of note there. We were seated at the bar, and a chubby fellow came up and picked up a bag of some make of crisps, walked off with it without paying. Lois urged me to tell the woman behind the counter but I refused on the grounds that it was none of my business. She insisted so eventually I gave in, explaining what we had taken to be a theft to the barmaid. She was smiling when she told us that he could do exactly as he saw fit as he was the owner of the pub!!