Our Readers on the 75th Anniversary

I remember back in 1951 when my father came home with the first issue of History Today. It cost half a crown; I was ten years old. When we had collected the first full year, he sent them to be bound and we were very excited when they returned in their impressive looking red cover, complete with gold History Today lettering. He continued to buy every copy and have them bound until he passed away at 96. Since then, I’ve continued his collection. I am now 85 and I continue to read each issue with as much interest as I did when I sat with my father all those years ago.

David Doman
via email

My earliest memory of History Today is rummaging through the disorganised upper floor of a second-hand bookshop where everything was 30p, and coming across the first 15 volumes of History Today, hardback bound, in a box in the corner. Being strong (and young) in those days, I carried them downstairs to the shop owner who expressed dismay that they were in the 30p room but begrudgingly sold them at that price (it was one-fifth of my weekly wage). They are still lined up on my bookcase and the bookshop still survives. Not all its pricing was wrong.

Nigel Hunt
via email

My first encounter with History Today was in the mid-1960s. Our History master had a subscription to the magazine and maintained a card index of the articles according to topic. When he announced the subject of our next essay there was a lively competition for the magazines containing relevant articles; fortunately we were a small group in a country grammar school, so we managed to get what we wanted. I certainly benefited from access to the magazine, and it seems likely that a classmate also did: his name was Richard Overy.

Clive Toomer
Emborough, Somerset     

In the mid-1960s, while researching my PhD, I came across a remarkable story about the first balloon flight across the Channel that I knew would make a good article. After it was rejected by American Heritage as ‘not American’ enough, I tried a British magazine that I knew of, History Today, and was thrilled when the article was accepted, appearing in 1968. Only recently did I learn that the men on the flight had carried the world’s first airmail message, a letter from William Franklin to his estranged father Benjamin in Paris. (Benjamin evidently did not answer.)

Mary Beth Norton
Ithaca, New York

As a teenager in the 1960s, my expectations of a history magazine were moulded by Purnell’s History of the 20th Century, a weekly partwork. History Today had the articles, but in the early years fell down on print quality. That changed in 1980 when the magazine had a redesign; I became a subscriber and remain one today. In the early 1990s the magazine organised tours and my wife and I joined two of them. On a week-long visit to sites associated with the Habsburg family History Today was represented by Gabor, a Hungarian student, who gave us his eyewitness account of the takeover of the Budapest television studios when the communist regime fell in 1989.

Matthew Sparks
Cardiff

Congratulations on History Today’s three-quarters of a century anniversary. I find, somewhat to my surprise, that over the years more than 20 of my own contributions have seen their way into print. I am most proud of a series that I was commissioned to write and co-organise, starring an international cast of scholars, on – what else? – democracy, ancient and modern. An evergreen topic that today is seriously at risk of being smeared with verdigris.

Paul Cartledge
Cambridge

In 1952 I was preparing for an A-level history exam and my teacher recommended a History Today subscription. I took his advice and continue to enjoy each new issue.  

Simon Mynott
via email

The late Lady Plowden, as chair of the Independent Broadcasting Authority, was responsible for my association with History Today. I was in a group trying to persuade the IBA to invite tenders for the right to broadcast innovative programmes nationally, not regionally. When we found that she would not even look at our proposal, we went to a pub to drown our sorrows. In the pub it somehow emerged that Longman, the owners of History Today, wanted to sell the magazine but could not find a buyer and had taken the decision to close it. Four of us in that pub (John Jackson, Jerry Kuehl, Stacy Marking, and myself) went to Longman and negotiated an agreement to take the magazine off their hands. Friends told us that we were mad but it worked. Eventually, we set up a charitable company to which we gave our shares and bowed out.

Hugh Stephenson
Brighton 

I’m a fresh subscriber; two years ago at Birmingham airport I bought my first copy and read it on the plane. I’m an engineer, but by the time I landed in Turin, I had decided to enrol in a bachelor’s degree in History. Today I’m in my second year.

Simone Mezzapesa
Turin, Italy

I have subscribed to History Today since 1973, following the completion of my degree in modern history at Sydney University. I have little doubt that its global coverage has assisted my dealing with people from many different backgrounds during my legal career. Closer to home, my children benefited from reading articles I pushed their way during their studies, which gave me great pleasure.

Derek Luxford
Sydney

I have read the magazine since I began secondary school in 1974. My biggest memory is Michael Crowder modernising the magazine; I was hooked and bought my own copy from then until the present day. D.A. Longley’s essay on Lenin and Paul Dukes’ on Stalin set me off on a lifetime’s interest in Russian history.

Derek Brown
via email

My father, a New Zealand history teacher, took out a subscription to History Today (that I shared enthusiastically) in the early 1950s. I lost touch with it after leaving home, but recently was gifted a bunch of back issues by my daughter. Happily, the October issue has just flown round the world to our beachside letterbox.

Anthony Dreaver
Raumati Beach, New Zealand

It has been my privilege to contribute countless articles to History Today under a succession of editors. I can remember working my way through the magazine’s archive to produce an anthology to mark its 50th anniversary! Here’s to its 75th and beyond.

Daniel Snowman
London

I am a long-term subscriber. The magazine means a lot to me, like a favourite armchair. I was a subscriber when my kids were born, it’s come on holidays with me, and moved home with me several times.

Andy Day
via email  

From the latest issue I learned that the magazine is turning 75. I have subscribed for a year but have already grown very fond of it. Looking forward to new issues and new stories.

Olegs Tkacevs
Latvia 

The editors wish to thank all readers and contributors, old and new, who wrote to share their memories of the magazine over the years. 

You can write to History Today at enquiries@historytoday.com or History Today, 2nd Floor (North), 55 Goswell Road, London EC1V 7EN, United Kingdom.