John Bull

This popular magazine was printed and published by Odhams Ltd and was made famous by Horatio Bottomley, (1860-1933) arguably one of the county's biggest fraudsters of his time. It started life as a penny weekly that was to become the UK's largest-selling magazine, boasting an alleged circulation of 1,350,000 on its front cover in 1916. Although highly patriotic, it took an anti-establishment stance, championing grievances of troops in World War I, even though this was illegal, under the opinionated Bottomley. In 1946, Odhams relaunched the magazine as a large format colour weekly. Its editorial strategy also changed, switching to emphasise fiction from the likes of famous authors including Agatha Christie, Nicholas Monsarrat, Alistair Maclean, J.B. Priestley and Neville Shute.

The covers featured some of the best artists of the day, too. In the process, John Bull took over The Passing Show, Illustrated (1958) and Everybody's Weekly (1959). It survived in this format until February 1960, although its name changed for a time after each takeover to become John Bull Everybody's Weekly, John Bull and Illustrated and John Bull Illustrated and eventually it was relaunched as Today with a more topical emphasis. This version was later taken over by Weekend. Artists who drew for the magazine included Ian Gammidge, Willian Narraway, Harry Rutherford, Bill Tidy, Clive Uppton and Geoffrey Wadlow.

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