The December 1954 issue is lavishly packed with photographs from cover to cover, perfectly capturing the spirit and vibrancy of football in that era. The back cover features a striking colourised portrait of Duncan Edwards of Manchester United, while inside, readers are treated to a full-page colour photo of Tommy Thompson from Aston Villa. Frank Barclay is in fine form with his pools tips, and Norman Auckland’s “With the Amateurs” column spotlights Dulwich Hamlet, complete with a crystal-clear team photo.
Adverts in this issue are as entertaining as the football content itself. There’s a full-page spread for World Sports, the international sports magazine, with Ferenc Puskas gracing the cover. Brylcreem makes an appearance as well, sure to stir up memories, alongside the ever-present Charles Atlas—his cartoon this time showing a bully kicking sand into someone’s face, a scene as familiar as ever. One of the quirkier additions is a playful ad for Soccerette Limited, promoting table soccer and lending extra vintage charm to the issue.
Rounding out the magazine are team photos from late 1954, featuring Arsenal, Leeds United (with the imposing John Charles), Cardiff City, and Aston Villa—with a young Peter McParland and Danny Blanchflower among the line-up. The issue is steeped in football nostalgia, lively photography, and adverts that reflect the humor and peculiarities of the time.
Photos of foreign fans rioting in Athens, or South American stadiums guarded by police in riot gear and separated from the field by moats, were regular features in the press. The December 1954 issue even showed a Uruguayan player being treated after fainting at the World Cup, with a caption calling it proof of the “consuming fervour” of foreign players. Stories like these, casting outsiders as wild or unpredictable, were staples of the popular press—and Football Monthly, produced by Fleet Street pros, was no exception.
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 The front and back covers are both intact. Naturally, the magazine shows its age after more than seventy years, but we consider this copy a collector’s piece. We’ve carefully cleaned away surface marks using Absorene, leaving the covers looking as fresh as possible. All pages are present, with no signs of previous owners’ names or any newsagent markings. The staples—though a little dull are not rusted and still hold the binding firmly. 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.
