Back in the 1950s, there was little to amuse us other than the steam radio, school homework (!) and reading. There were some radio programmes I tried never to miss, like the Goon Show, Educating Archie, Take it from here, and later on, the Navy Lark. I also listened avidly to Movie-go-Round on Sunday afternoons just to hear what films would be coming my way in the current year. It was not until 1956 that we got an electric radiogram to replace the wind-up gramophone on which we played our Django Reinhardt and Harry Roy 78s, and the only popular music to be heard on the radio came from frequency 208, Radio Luxembourg, although once a year there was a series of broadcasts from the Radio Show, Earls Court. That's where I first heard Paul Anka singing Diana, and realised that there was more to musical life than Saturday Skiffle Club and trad jazz. Mind you, I loved trad jazz, I was passionate about it, and even followed Mr Acker Bilk and his Paramount Jazz Band all over the west country - Bristol, Redruth, Bath, Cheltenham. But those things aside, reading was my passion. And when Eric Leyland opened up the vistas contained in the Commander Annual, I was

bowled away. Just look at what you got in the very first annual, published in 1956 - three months after my tenth birthday, three months after I started grammar school. There's MUSKUM PETE, BACKWOODSMAN, TOTTY, the tale of ten exciting terms, Capt. W E Johns short story BIRDS OF A FEATHER, GET YOUR MAN, a story about the North West Mounted Police, KALAAN'S LAST FLIGHT, THEY FLEW TO ADVENTURE, TIGER OF THE FRONTIER, a story about India, Murray Leinster's SF Short story THE PROPAGANDIST, a Treasure-Island-style tale, AT THE SIGN OF THE WOLF'S HEAD, GOLD RUSH, another school story, TONY BEATS THE BAND, KALANG, a story about a wild goat, THAT BIT OF CHENILLE, a story about a sparrow, and FOREST PATROL. If that wasn't something for everyone, well, I just don't know. Five hundred pages of sheer joy. And it was followed up the following year, and the year after. In 1959, however, things went slightly wrong. Eric Fleming ran out of original stories and put in adaptations of such classics as THE PRISONER OF ZENDA. It was still a good read, but I have to admit that I remember being ever-so-slightly disappointed. But for four glorious years I looked anxiously for the big red book in my Christmas stocking and always found it.

My sister, four years older than me, received the CORONET equivalent, and I used to pinch those and read them - she wasn't as passionate about reading as I was! I wrote to the editor, Eric Leyland after the 1957 book to ask about the school stories and if the authors thereof had written any books I could purchase. Back came a most courteous reply to the effect that the school stories were all written by Frank Richards! Those four big red books once again adorn my bookshelves - I've managed to get them all within the last couple of months from reputable dealers on the web. Well worth having, still well worth reading. We didn't need TV then, what a shame we need it so badly now!

Regular readers of GM will know that we've already had an excellent article about Eric Fleming by Jim Mackenzie - you can find it by clicking on "features" on the left. This article of mine is as much about Eric Leyland as it is about COMMANDER, CORONET and, of course, SABRE, because he was those annuals. I've managed to track down someone who had Eric Leyland as his headmaster at Normanhurst Primary School in Chingford, Essex. Mike Bliss tells me that theirs was a "stormy" relationship - he remembers getting the highest number of house points awarded for an essay, but was also regularly punished (usually slipper but also the cane), generally for things like leaning against the fence in the playground!

Mike goes on to say that at his initial school interview Leyland asked him if he could perform a multiplication, something like 387*78, and was gobsmacked until he realised that he wasn't expected to work it out in his head! Mike is happy to share his memories with anyone on his own website, www.theblisspages.com. My only tangible memory of Eric Leyland is that he courteously replied to my letter about school stories; it seems that he was teaching full-time and running a primary school all the time he was writing those fabulous kids' adventure stories!