Hot Off The Press – New Titles This Week

This week we are marking of the ninetieth anniversary of the release of the Alfred Hitchcock film The 39 Steps, which came out on 6 June 1935. Meanwhile, we are celebrating the addition of eight brand new newspaper titles, the updating of twelve of our existing titles, as we have added 150,950 brand new pages to The Archive in all over the last seven days.

So read on to discover more about the release of The 39 Steps and to learn more about our new and updated titles of the week.

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The African Critic

Our first new title of the week is the African Critic, which was first published in London on 7 September 1895. Owned and edited by South African journalist Henry Hess, the African Critic was an offshoot of the Johannesburg newspaper The Critic.

According to Jonathan Derrick, in his book Africa, Empire and Fleet Street, Henry Hess was a ‘maverick of journalism,’ and was ‘keen to get into trouble.’ As such, his newspaper, the African Critic, was ‘irreverent, satirical, [and] openly trouble-seeking, striking at all sorts of targets.’ Its and Hess’s main critic, though, were the Boer Republics, against whom Hess was particularly ‘belligerent.’

African Critic | 12 September 1896

Indeed, this stance led to the African Critic being banned in South Africa in 1897, just two years before the outbreak of the Second Boer War. Hess was also critical of Cecil Rhodes, the Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1895.

Filling some 36 pages, the African Critic appeared every Saturday at the cost of six pence. A regular feature of the paper was its ‘Lens and Scalpel’ section. This feature ran for many pages, and contained short paragraphs of miscellaneous news, gossip and comment, mostly on South African affairs. The paper reported broadly on South African news and issues, with the occasional smattering of poetry.

African Critic | 4 February 1899

From 1898 onwards this title was known simply as The Critic.

The Blackburn Catholic News

Our next new title of the week is the Blackburn Catholic News, which was established in 1893 by the Catholic Press Company. This weekly penny newspaper was one of the ‘Six Great Catholic Papers’ that served the North-West of England, its sister titles being the Bolton Catholic Herald, Manchester Catholic Herald, Wigan Catholic Herald, Liverpool Catholic Herald and Preston Catholic News.

Blackburn Catholic News | 11 January 1908

Containing the ‘most local’ and the ‘most Catholic news,’ these papers featured articles ‘by all the Leading Catholic Public Men,’ with news from Ireland, Rome, Paris, London, Glasgow and elsewhere.

The Blackburn Catholic News, meanwhile, filled sixteen pages, often with photographs and illustrated news. It even featured a ladies’ column, complete with illustrations, alongside summaries of Catholic news, histories of saints, serialised fiction with a religious theme, and football news.

Blackburn Catholic News | 4 January 1908

The Cornish Evening Tidings and the Devon and Somerset News

From the North West to the South West now for our next two new newspapers of the week. First up is the wonderfully named Cornish Evening Tidings, which was first published as The Tidings in 1870 in the Cornish port town of Penzance. It would later become known as the Evening Tidings.

The daily edition of the Cornish Telegraph, the Cornish Evening Tidings cost only one halfpence. Its four pages were filled with the ‘Daily Gossip,’ alongside local and district news, notices of births, marriages and deaths, and a railway timetable.

Cornish Evening Tidings | 13 January 1891

In 1908 the title was purchased by The Cornishman, and it finally became known as the Cornish Evening Tidings. It became the daily paper for The Cornishman, and it ceased publication in 1944.

Meanwhile, the Devon and Somerset News was published in the neighbouring county of Devon from 1873 onwards. Printed in the town of Tiverton, the Devon and Somerset News was independent in its politics, covering the latest from East Devon and West Somerset.

Devon and Somerset News | 10 July 1879

Appearing every Thursday, with a circulation of some 2,300 copies, the Devon and Somerset News gave especial ‘attention to agricultural subjects,’ with a ‘good digest of general news.’ The title was published by Woodley, Williams and Dunsford.

The Eccles Advertiser and District Recorder and the Salford Chronicle

And just like that, we’re back to the North West with our next duo of new titles. First off the blocks now is the Eccles Advertiser and District Recorder, which was established in the market town of Eccles, now a part of the City of Salford in Greater Manchester, in 1853.

This politically neutral title appeared every Saturday at the cost of one penny, and it described itself as a ‘good family paper,’ with ‘articles on local topics.’ Indeed, the Eccles Advertiser and District Recorder had ‘an important circulation in the South Eastern Parliamentary Division of Lancashire, embracing a population manufacturing, mining and agricultural.’

Eccles Advertiser and District Reporter | 28 August 1886

The Eccles Advertiser and District Recorder, meanwhile, circulated ‘in fifteen parishes,’ incorporating Eccles, Patricroft, Barton, Swinton, Pendlebury, Worsley, Walkden, Flixton, Irlam, Cadishead, Pendleton and Salford.

We stay in Salford now to introduce the Salford Chronicle, which was established some years later in 1868. The Salford Chronicle was Conservative in its politics, and it appeared every Saturday at the cost of one pence. Circulating in ‘Salford and the district,’ it was published by Henry Snape and Sons. In 1926 it was incorporated into the Salford City Reporter, itself founded in 1879, to become the Salford City Reporter and Salford Chronicle.

The St. Neot’s Advertiser and the Wood Green and Southgate Weekly Herald

Our penultimate new title of the week is the St. Neot’s Advertiser, which was established in the town of St. Neot’s, then a part of the historic county of Huntingdonshire, in 1878. Independent in its politics, it appeared every Friday, and it was apparently the ‘only paper printed in St. Neots.’

Indeed, the St. Neot’s Advertiser had a ‘large circulation’ in the counties of Huntingdonshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire, even having the ‘largest circulation of any paper published in Huntingdonshire.’

Our final new title of the week is the Wood Green and Southgate Weekly Herald. This penny paper appeared likewise every Friday, and was also independent in its politics. With the full name of the Wood Green and Southgate Weekly Herald and Palmers Green and District Advertiser, this newspaper was established in 1888, and was one of ‘the big three Weekly Heralds.’

Wood Green and Southgate Weekly Herald | 27 December 1935

Indeed, the Wood Green and Southgate Weekly Herald’s sister papers were the Tottenham and Edmonton Herald and the Enfield Weekly Herald, and together they were ‘the acknowledged predominant Weekly Papers in Tottenham, Edmonton, West Green, Harringay, Wood Green, Palmers Green, Southgate, Winchmore Hill, Enfield Highway [and] Ponders End.’ These papers were notable for being ‘absolutely independent of all politics or political parties,’ and for featuring every week ‘the latest news and photos.’

Meanwhile, the Wood Green and Southgate Weekly Herald‘s main area of concentration was Wood Green, a part of Haringey, and Southgate, a part of Enfield, which lies just to the north of Wood Green, in North London.

Updated Newspaper Titles

We have an array, in fact twelve in all, of updated titles for you to explore this week. Highlights include the new year we have added to publishing industry title the Bookseller, which now means we have a complete run of this title from 1858 through to 2008. Other highlights include a duo of updated Welsh tittles, namely the Swansea Journal and South Wales Liberal and Aberystwyth’s Welsh Gazette, another duo of updated titles from Northern Ireland, the Missionary Herald of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland and the Newry Telegraph, and an updated trio from the Republic of Ireland, the Limerick Reporter, the Midland Reporter and Westmeath Nationalist and Saunders’s News-Letter.

The Release of Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps

On 6 June 1935, ninety years ago, Alfred Hitchcock’s film The 39 Steps was released. Starring Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll, and adapted from the 1915 John Buchan novel, it would go on to become a classic of cinema. But how was it received at the time?

One of our new titles this week, the Wood Green and Southgate Weekly Herald, contains a preview of The 39 Steps, albeit published many months after its release on 15 November 1935. It describes the film as offering ‘fine entertainment, and a human and powerful story.’

Wood Green and Southgate Weekly Herald | 15 November 1935

According to the Wood Green and Southgate Weekly Herald, The 39 Steps was set to play at the Gaumont Palace in Wood Green on the following Monday, and it offers the below synopsis of the film’s plot, which:

…concerns the murder of a girl in the flat of a man who became unwittingly involved in the search for a master spy. While hot on the trail he hears he is wanted for murder. He meets the master criminal, who shoots him, leaving him for dead, but he is not. More trouble ensues when he is arrested, only to escape to London where he is able to frustrate the plans of the spy. The sequel provides an extraordinary dramatic scene.

Picturegoer | 16 November 1935

Around the time of the release of The 39 Steps, film fan magazine the Picturegoer offered a more in depth review of the classic thriller:

John Buchan’s book has been subjected to considerable transformation in its passage from literature to screen entertainment, but the result is a highly enjoyable picture, certainly the best that Alfred Hitchcock has made to date. In fact, it is more the director’s film than the artistes.’ It is Hitchcock’s treatment and development which makes it so eminently satisfactory.

Picturegoer | 1 December 1935

Whilst the Picturegoer also praises the ‘denouement’ of The 39 Steps, which the reviewer explains is a ‘very good example of crowd handling in a highly realistic setting,’ most praise went to the director:

Hitchcock scores in his attention to detail and in the minor characterisations, while the scenic and photographic qualities of the production are outstanding.

Discover more about the early reception to The 39 Steps, and indeed other classic films, in the pages of our Archive today.

New Titles

Updated Titles

This week we have updated twelve of our existing titles.

You can learn more about each of the titles we add to every week by clicking on their names. On each paper’s title page, you can read a free sample issue, learn more about our current holdings, and our plans for digitisation.

You can keep up to date with all the latest additions by visiting the recently added page.  You can even look ahead to see what we’re going to add tomorrow.