The Greyfriars Index

Welcome to the Greyfriars Index (not forgetting Rookwood, St. Frank's and St. Jim's). Greyfriars school is the creation of one of the greatest - and certainly the most prolific - children's authors of the last century, Charles Hamilton writing as Frank Richards (and also known as Martin Clifford, Owen Conquest, and many many more).

This site includes detailed information on his most important work, with complete listings of all of his stories about the famous schools: Greyfriars, St. Jim's and Rookwood in the boys' weekly papers, annuals and post 1940 novels. It also includes a wealth of illustrations from original publications, as well as complete listings for the St. Frank's stories (mainly published in the Nelson Lee Library and written by Edwy Searles Brookes). However, I've called it the Greyfriars Index because my favourite stories are those of Greyfriars in the Magnet.

I've also tried to give a flavour of the fiction itself, and some indication of why I've gained so much pleasure from reading and re-reading the stories over the last 30 years or more (from when my father bought me the Greyfriars Press Holiday Annual for 1973 for Christmas 1972, I suspect more as a nostalgia trip for him, as he just remembered the original Magnet and Gem before they folded prior to the Second World War).

Simply use the links at the top of the page to explore the site in detail. The Publications page will give a list of all the publications covered on the site, with links to the relevant pages.

Publication of the month for July 2008
This is the first Gem issue to appear in this slot. A rare blue and white Gem from 1921, the Gem was gradually pulling out of a period of sub authors into what would become possibly it's best year ever, 1922.
This story, although it can be read on its own, forms part of a four part series featuring the arrival of Kit Wildrake, who would become ubiquitous over the next 18 months. Wildrake was an interesting character - assertive, intelligent, good at school and games. He came to the fore particularly in mystery series that required a leader to puzzle out the clues and find the villain of the piece.
This issue also features an episode of The Invisible Hand, a serial linked to a Saturday Morning Pictures series of the same name. An early tie in between comics and cinema, it's not known how the collaboration came about, or how successful it was.
And finally on page 19, an advert for the "famous" Harlene hair products that graced (or so it seemed) almost every Magnet and Gem through the late teens and early 1920s.
Click the image to the left to open the comic in Adobe Acrobat format.

Previous "publications of the month" are on the main publications page.

Please let me know if you spot any errors, think something is missing or simply want to comment on the site. I should stress that this is still a site in development (and the design elements are currently in a state of transition). Also, that this site looks best in Internet Explorer 7, and I'm still working on making it look as good in Firefox and Safari (the joys of different browsers rendering differently!).

Cheers.

Note: Publications of the month and the main indexes on this site are also available for download in Adobe Acrobat Reader format. Right click the link on the relevant page (i.e. the publications page or the introductory page for a given comic) and choose "save target as" to download the acrobat file. Click the logo below to get the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader if you don't already have it.