Talk:John Bull (magazine)

(1940?)
I think this periodical was running in 1940. --Duncan 14:37, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

1820
I replaced the dead link with an archive site that also provides both anchor links and a related title that suggests the provider of the previous link garbled it. The "Johnson's Court..." piece mentions Bolt Court but surely (see also the same work's "Bolt Court EC4") that editor misconstrued "the Court", and besides, probably over-interpreted "rolled off the press [there]", which could refer to either (by metonymy) where it was edited or (literally) where printed; the article profits rather than suffers by silence on the uncertain and irrelevant location. My sole reservation is that Hoole's (not to be confused with Theodore Hook or Hooke) nostalgic and apparently tourist-targeted work is a poor substitute for one whose scholarly apparatus is intact, and the ref in question should be dumped as soon as a more clearly reliable one is at hand. In particular, a work directed at the magazine, or at publishing or political history, could obviate the OR that leaves doubt as to any continuity beyond title between the 1820s and 1890s publications. --Jerzy•t 07:18, 26 July 2010 (UTC)

No continuous John Bull magazine
The John Bull magazine started by Bottomley in 1906 had no connection with earlier papers or magazines published under that name in the 19th century. The article needs to be revised to make this clear. In fact it needs a pretty general rewrite, as well as additional citations; I have removed a number which were either dead links or went to irrelevant sources. I may be able to give the article some attention in due course, but at the momemt I am working on the Bottomley article. Brianboulton (talk) 17:57, 19 June 2014 (UTC)

'Bullets' competition
The immense success of Bottomley's magazine was apparently down to the 'Bullets' competition, which became a craze, and obsession to some. A phrase was given, and you had to improve or comment on this with four words for a small fee; there were no rules, and no 'right' answer. This should certainly be covered. I have a 1935 'Bullets Dictionary' which lists winning entries, and frankly (even given the societal shifts since then) I can see no rationale to the winning phrases, the majority of which appear incomprehensible.

I suspect it was another Bottomley money making scam - the winners being selected at random by the anonymous 'Competitions Editor' (probably a junior post-room clerk devoting 15 minutes to the task), and the others sent 'near miss' or 'good shot' notifications to keep them entering. 109.144.210.20 (talk) 09:53, 19 May 2021 (UTC)