Record Number: 12100

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'The favourite literary pabulum of us boys at school, however, was less classical: "penny bloods" and other Weeklies issued in penny sheets, such as "Sweeny Todd the Barber". Romantic stories of highwaymen circulated freely from boy to boy until reduced to rags: Dick Turpin, Spring-heeled Jack, the gallant Claude Duval, gracefully dancing on the greensward with the ladies he had robbed, Edith the Captive, Edith Heron, with what impatience we awaited the issue of the next number, with what absorbing interest we followed the thrilling adventure!... What it did was to evoke the reading habit, and to one boy at least that was a valuable endowment. Nor did the "Boys of England" proffer a much healthier pabulum to the hunger of the young barbarian for extra-lawful adventure. I can even today visualise the number I read with the lovely alliterate title of its opening story, "Alone in the Pirates' Lair" - and the front page illustration - Jack Harkaway, sitting before the pirate on the island, open-eyed, drinking in the recital of his hazardous deeds;...'

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

Between 1 Jan 1852 and 31 Dec 1870

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

city: London, Spitalfields

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Thomas Okey

Age:

Child (0-17)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

1852

Socio-Economic Group:

Labourer (non-agricultural)

Occupation:

apprentice

Religion:

n/a

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

England

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

[n/a]

Title:

Boys of England

Genre:

Fiction, Ephemera

Form of Text:

Print: Serial / periodical

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

reading group

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Source Information:

Record ID:

12100

Source:

Print

Author:

Thomas Okey

Editor:

n/a

Title:

A basketful of memories: An autobiographical sketch

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1930

Vol:

n/a

Page:

20

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Thomas Okey, A basketful of memories: An autobiographical sketch, (London, 1930), p. 20, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=12100, accessed: 21 December 2024

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Additional Comments:

None