The August 1954 edition is a real treasure for football fans, lavishly packed from cover to cover with striking photographs. Among its highlights are color photos of Sam Bartram—featured on the back—and Johnny Nichols of West Bromwich Albion, plus an article focusing on the “admitters.” One of the standout sections is an eight-page photographic feature on the 1954 World Cup, with great shots of Tommy Taylor, Tom Finney, and a nod to Scotland’s brief run that year. Team photos of Wolverhampton Wanderers, Ipswich Town, Port Vale, and Leicester City—each a champion for the 1953-54 season—add to the magazine’s rich showcase.
In the early 1950s, color photography was rare and expensive for publications. To add visual appeal, many photos—especially on covers and center spreads—were black-and-white prints that artists then hand-coloured. This gave the images a distinctive, sometimes slightly surreal look, with bright, flat colors and bold contrasts.
These hand-coloured photos were created by artists who painted directly onto black-and-white images, using watercolors, dyes, or tinted oils to bring them to life with vivid, often slightly surreal colours. The colouring was sometimes slightly inaccurate—kits or backgrounds could vary, and even the ball was sometimes inserted—but that was part of the charm.
The artists at Soccerbooks have taken these classic 1950s A4 hand-coloured images and elevated them with the latest art technology, producing stunning A4 prints that are perfect for framing—all for as little as £9.99. You can explore the collection here:
Hand Coloured Prints Despite the impressive content, the magazine shows its age. The cover, while still complete, has a bit of damage at the top left corner and pencil marks from a bygone newsagent—quirks typical for vintage issues. Curiously, there’s no index, which seems odd, almost as if the editorial team left that detail behind at the Fleet Street pub. We’ve carefully cleaned away surface marks using Absorene, leaving the covers looking as fresh as possible. 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.
