The Greyfriars Holiday Annual for Boys and Girls, 1937

[1936] 256pp, with colour plate frontispiece, further colour plates and many monochrome illustrations in text.  Canvas spine over pictorial boards.  8vo.  Boards a little shelf worn, and canvas a bit rubbed and faded but covers remain remarkably bright and clean.  Some dust darkening to text block edges.  Small pen mark on front paste down else internally neat, clean, bright and tight.   A lovely copy. The Amalgated Press published the first Greyfriars Holiday Annual in 1920, with each issue containing numerous illustrated stories (as well as some puzzles, games and other snippets). Many of the stories were penned by Frank Richards, or written under another of Charles Hamilton's pen names (of which he had many) although other authors contributed stories too. The series was hugely successful, despite its relatively high price, and continued for 22 years before ending in the midst of war-time paper shortages. Many of the stories feature Greyfriars School and Billy Bunter or some of the other school stories created by Charles Hamilton.