Knowledge ...... "the new colour magazine which grows into an encyclopædia"

I remain surprised at how much of my childhood has survived the passage of nearly 60 years.

No. 71 Masks

The cherished books, comics, and magazines I lovingly read and reread have had a more that a few near misses, when house moves, and requests to spring clean could have resulted in their loss.

Some like my Eagle annuals and comics are regularly brought out and  perused, and I am never quite sure if this is a testimony to their quality or that tendency to slip back into a less complicated time.

And today it is the turn of Knowledge which was a weekly educational magazine for children. 

It was launched by Purnell and Sons on January 9th 1961, cost two shillings, and was designed to build into an encyclopaedia.

There were 192 issues, spread out into sixteen volumes.  I still have almost all of the first 116 editions, although sadly somewhere along the way the bound volumes have been lost and I am left with just the covers.

But these alone are a fascinating read, containing a full page illustration and descriptions and explanations across the remaining three pages.

No.1 Architecture

“The majority of the covers of the first 192 issues) were the work of illustrator Alessandro Fedini, but the covers of the additional issues 193-216 (volumes 17 and 18) depicted twentieth-century events and news headlines.

Knowledge was a British version of the Italian magazine Conoscere published by Fratelli Fabbri Editori of Milan.

The concept of a British edition had first been pitched to Fleetway Publications Ltd who turned it down, fearing it would damage sales of their own The Children's Encyclopædia and The Children's Newspaper. 

Following the success of Knowledge, Fleetway brought out Look and Learn in 1962.

Knowledge sold 400,000 copies  and ceased publication in 1966.*

I can’t remember when I stopped getting the magazine but it will have been sometime around 1964, when at the age of 14 I deemed such stuff had had their day.

But our Stella saw their potential and carefully saved them, which is how they eventually came back to me.

No.6 The Atom

By one of those odd twists, the magazine Conoscere was collected by the Italian side of the family and were until recently still on the bookshelves.  

The style and in particular the illustrations are recognizably the same.

And it is the artwork of Alessandro Fedini, which still draws me in, from his cover illustrating a piece on masks to that of covers for Flags, the atom and architecture.

In this digital age where so much knowledge is accessibale in an instant I still like the idea of Knowledge, and that other trail blazer which was Look and Learn.

Back then the alternatives to these was the library or expensive and formiddalbe encyclopedias.

So I continue to have a soft spot for how we got our information on everything from entomology and ethnology to Orders in Architecture and publishing.

But that is where my 116 editions ends.

No. 30 Flags

Leaving me just to add that long before Knowledge and Look and Learn there was Eagle, but that is another story.

For those who want to see all the front covers I suggest you follow the link.**

I will close by remembering the newsagents on Mona Road, just round the corner from our house on Lausanne Road. 

It was a magical place, but alas has long since gone.

Just when that happened I have no idea.  

We left for Well Hall in 1964 and I had no reason ever to go back, which is a shame given that so many of the Christmas annuals, comics and magazines, we still have knocking around will have come from there.

But I guess there are some things Knowledge will never deliver an answer to.

No.11 Bread

Location; the 1960s

Pictures, covers from Knowledge, 1961-1962, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Knowledge (partwork), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_(partwork)

*british comics, https://britishcomics.wordpress.com/2020/01/07/knowledge/