Punch

The now defunct Punch was a humorous, satirical British magazine published weekly from 1841 to 1992 and again from 1996 to 2002. Founded in July 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells it boasted amongst its editors Kenneth Bird (Fougasse), Malcolm Muggeridge and Alan Coren. Famous contributing authors included notable authors at varying times such as Kingsley Amis, John Betjeman, A.P. Herbert, George du Maurier, George Melly, A.A. Milne, Anthony Powell, William Makepeace Thackeray, Somerset Maugham, P.G. Wodehouse, Keith Waterhouse, Quentin Crisp, Sylvia Plath, Joyce Grenfell, E.M. Delafield and Stevie Smith. Its equally impressive list of cartoonists and illustrators who drew for Punch includes Edward Ardizzone, Nicolas Bentley, Quentin Blake, Rowland Emett, Michael Davies (ffolkes), Charles Keene, David Langdon, Phil May, Arthur Rackham, Gerald Scarfe, Ronald Searle, Norman Thelwell and Bill Tidy.

Despite being noted for humour and satire for over a century, and achieving peak sales of 175,000 copies a week, the circulation dropped in the 1990’s. The magazine was forced to close in 1992 after 150 years of publication. Four years later under the stewardship of Egyptian businessman and Harrod’s proprietor Mohamed Al-Fayed, the magazine was re-launched in 1996. Rumour had it that it was purchased as a potential ‘spoiler’ aimed at Private Eye the satirical magazine often vituperative of Al-Fayed. Punch was never to be profitable again and reputedly lost its owner £16 million over the six years of its reincarnation. In 2004, much of the archive was acquired by the British Library

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