Look and Learn

[Marca]

I just took delivery of two batches of Look and Learn, issues 6-10 and 27-37, all from 1962. I didn't realize the magazine was so big, about the same size as the later Tell Me Why, which I remember from my childhood. Issue 10 is supposed to have something by Mike, Roland and Oliver - Warrior Friends, not sure if it is or not. Interesting to see some issues of the magazine.

Spookily, although I got the two batches off different sellers on ebay (one in Dover and one in Kent), both sets have the same original address written on the front. A bit weird... 8O

[Michael Moorcock]

Yeah, I did Roland and Oliver. Wrote a lot of the biogs of authors, too, starting, as I recall, with Trollope. Tell Me Why I think was published on the success of L&L. Barry and I wrote a bit for that, too. The mags having the same address might not be THAT weird since dealers tend to trade batches amongst themselves.

[Marca]

I did wonder about you doing the author biogs Mike. There's one on H. G. Wells in one issue, lots of others. Will have to scan the Roland and Oliver article if it will fit in the scanner. I don't think it's already in the Gallery.

Did you really write for Tell Me Why? From memory that started about 1968/9, which seems a bit late for you to be doing that sort of stuff, although I think you were still doing Lion and Tiger annuals and the like in the late 60s? There was a big stack of Tell Me Why issues at my parents house, must dig them out and have a look through. Hope they're still there...

[Michael Moorcock]

It was probably the precursor to Tell Me Why, then. A similar title, like
Ask Me What -- you know the sort of thing. The first year was so full of errors of fact they had to run a special 'did you spot the deliberate mistake' feature... They turned out several of these self-educators. I could be thinking of Knowledge. Barry might remember. I know there were two at one stage, for different age groups. Was the publisher Mitchell Beazley or Dorian Kindersley. One of those. Far less 'soul' than the Fleetway versions. L&L and Bible Story, and then Boys World, sometimes Eagle, were the markets we preferred because they paid considerably better than the letterpress weeklies. They were all gravure, of course. Actually, I don't remember doing Wells. The odd thing about my career in popular journalism of that kind was that I rarely got the subjects I seemed most suited for -- hardly ever did science fiction (though Barry and I did science stuff). I also remember doing a Dostoievski which was as dramatic as the Trollope was dull. Not an easy life for a zippy 1500 words or so... The Man Who Invented the Post Office or some such... Come to think of it, I seem to recall The Man Who Invented the Police (Peel) as another. I'd love to go through a set of those some day and identify at least some of the stuff I did.