BILLY BUNTER

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 64, 13 September 1940, Page 15

BILLY BUNTER

Sir,-With reference to the article in this week’s Listener entitled " Good-bye to Billy Bunter," I think your contributor has made some erroneous conclusions. In the first place he seems te

have the impression that only very young people read these stories. This is not so. I personally know of many people long past their youth who have read and enjoyed the " Magnet" over the years. With regard to the characters remaining unchanged in a changing world, to their admirers that fact only adds to their charm. A taste for this kind of literature can be compatible even with a liking for Bernard Shaw or the "Racing Weekly." The minds of many of us can remain perennially young, although developed. The success of "Mickey Mouse,’ "Snow White" and

"Pinocchio" proves this. Gene Autry is only the modern counterpart of Buffalo Bill. Your contributor also refers to the "Magnet" artist as anonymous. This is incorrect, as all regular readers know him as C, H. Chapman, although some of the illustrations have been done by L. Shields. The Public School background to stories has not lost its following, as witness "Good-bye Mr. Chips," one of the greatest of recent pictures; and although we may occasionally smile at

the old school tie, representatives of the Public’ School are doing their bit in the defence of their country to-day.

ADMIRER OF THE MAGNET

(Wellington)

(Our correspondent would appear to have read the article as an attack on Billy Bunter. We thought we were laying a wreath on his grave. It is a fact also that most of the illustrations were unsigned, and unsigned articles and drawings are ‘‘ anonymous.’ We are hows ever interested in the information supplied by aur correspondent and hope she will be inter« ested in the additional facts we are able to supply on Page 9.-Ed.)