This edition features an article, 'With the Amateurs,' about Slough Centre F.C. complete with a team photo. The magazine is lavishly packed with photographs from cover to cover. The first issue of Charles Buchan’s Football Monthly hit the shelves more than seventy years ago, in September 1951. Buchan, a veteran journalist with the News Chronicle and the BBC, had noticed a gap in the market for a dedicated football magazine—and he was right. The magazine launched with an impressive circulation of 60,000, a figure most modern publications would envy. By 1959, that number had doubled to 120,000; by 1961, it climbed to 130,000; and at its peak in 1967, the magazine was selling a staggering 250,000 copies every month. The "Boys Club", launched as part of the magazine, had 100,000 registered members by 1968.
Buchan himself wrote a regular column from the magazine’s inception until his sudden death in the south of France in June 1960. Remarkably, his final column appeared in the August issue as usual, underscoring how unexpected his passing was. The September 1960 issue devoted two pages to tributes from figures across the football world.
OUT OF STOCK ~ Restocking Soon ~ Please check back again! A manuscript from the forthcoming book (2026/27),
Finding Its Voice: The Identity Quest of Charles Buchan’s Football Monthly, is being shared
here. If you have any memories or information about the magazine, please feel free to leave a comment— We’d love to hear from you—and maybe even have a chat!
We’ve got the biggest collection of vintage football books, annuals, magazines, and a variety of cigarette and bubble gum cards that were popular back in the day. If you think you, a family member, or even an ancestor might appear in one of the thousands of photos in our publications, just email us your details to archives@soccerbooks.co.uk and we’ll help you find out; just allow 2 to 3 weeks for a reply.
