Description
Book SynopsisEdition of young men's magazines from just before the First World War, presenting a vivid and touching picture of life at the time.The Angels' Voice was the title given to a magazine which circulated among a group of some 40 or so young men in Brixton between 1910 and 1913, all members of the Young Men's Bible Class of Trinity Congregational Church there. In its pages they teased each other, their sisters and girlfriends in poetry, drawings and witty, innocent articles. We see them playing football, going on country rambles, roller-skating, cycling, smoking (a lot), arguing about politics and women's rights, taking day trips to France and holidays in the Channel Islands, Belgium and Italy, and even working in Switzerland, India and the Canary Islands. This magazine offers an unique insight into life in London in general, and the lives and attitudes of lower middle-class young men in one suburb in particular, on the eve of the outbreak of the First World War, during which many of them were to serve and several of them were to die; its pages depict the world lost in the trenches of France and Flanders. The magazines are presented here with an introduction and full notes, with an appendix providing biographical information on many of those connected with them. ALAN ARGENT grew up in south London. He is minister of Trinity Congregational Church, Brixton, and Research Fellow at Dr Williams's Library, London. He has written a biography of Elsie Chamberlain, and a history of Congregationalism in the twentieth century.
Trade ReviewA compelling picture of the engagement of a group of young men with Chapel life in one South London suburb. * BAPTIST QUARTERLY *
This volume, like few other sources, enables us to catch a glimpse of...reality in the life of a particular church. * CONGREGATIONAL HISTORY SOCIETY MAGAZINE *
The world of male, lower middle-class London suburbia is charmingly depicted, and the book provides valuable primary source material for historians of lower middle-class culture and British Christianity. * JOURNAL OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY *
Table of ContentsIntroduction Number 1, November 1910 Number 2, December 1910 Number 3, January 1911 Number 5, March 1911 Number 6, April 1911 Number 7, November 1911 Number 8, July 1912 Number 9, December 1912 Number 10, July 1913 Number 11, August 1913 Number 12, September 1913 Number 13, October 1913 Number 15, December 1913 Appendix: List of names Bibliography
