My Fiction Collection by Jay Mackie
Oh how I’d love to
turn the clock back to the ‘golden age’ of fiction in British
women’s weeklies! For me, this would be the late 80s to late 90s.
My name is Jay Mackie,
I am 43 and I live in Nottingham where I am a composer and private
music teacher. I have collected magazine fiction (and magazines) on
and off since 1988, after looking forward to the Mini Mystery story
in my mum’s copy of Bella each week. It’d be the first page I’d
turn to. Looking back now and rereading my collection of these
spanning some ten years since Bella’s 1987 launch date, these
stories had it all; whodunnits, voodoo, unsettled ghosts, UFOs, an
encounter with Old Nick himself and much more. These tales displayed
varying literary styles and mystery content, but were always
constructed with such skilful craft and elegance.
I even had a go at
writing my own at the tender age of 14 and sending it to the then
fiction editor, Linda O’ Byrne. I received a lovely reply from her
stating her enjoyment on reading my tale, but she felt that the
characters didn’t have enough ‘bite’ for her. Not bad for my
first (and last!) ever story! I accepted this constructive criticism
and her complimentary copies of a dozen older Mini Mysteries to add
to my increasing collection.
My reason for
collecting these was that someone’s careful literary toil and
expert storytelling seemed too good to resign to the bin once
finished. Plus, it was nice to enjoy again and compare to other
stories. Over the years I have added other fiction pages to my
collection too from weeklies such as Best, Take a Break and Chat
mainly. The early days of Chat’s ‘4 Minute Fiction’ page from
the early 90s was nice to compare with Bella, as quite a lot of the
stories shared supernatural or similarly off the wall subject matter
– and a few of the same writers.
Collecting vintage
magazines for me is a lovely hobby if you’re nuts on nostalgia like
me. Magazines provide a truly authentic and direct link to the past;
the then current celeb news, advertising, vintage fashion and of
course the abundance of weekly fiction. In Best’s early days some
issues treated us to no less than three stories a week. Sadly as
we’re all aware the world has moved on and gradually many weeklies
have now ditched their fiction in favour of even MORE banal celebrity
sensationalism in my view. The old content is something to be praised
for its variety and enjoyed with fondness for the era.
As Japanese
decluttering guru Marie Kondo says, only keep something if it ‘sparks
joy’. That’s precisely what vintage magazines and their fiction
pages do for me. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!
I’d
sincerely love to hear from anyone out there who either collects
magazine fiction, or magazines in general. You may well have copies
of stories which would complete my collection, and vice versa to swap
or just chat about. You may have even written mysteries for Bella and
the like back in the ‘golden’ days, do leave a comment or drop me an email
(jayiguana@yahoo.co.uk) – it’d be super to hear from you!
My reason for
collecting these was that someone’s careful literary toil and
expert storytelling seemed too good to resign to the bin once
finished. Plus, it was nice to enjoy again and compare to other
stories. Over the years I have added other fiction pages to my
collection too from weeklies such as Best, Take a Break and Chat
mainly. The early days of Chat’s ‘4 Minute Fiction’ page from
the early 90s was nice to compare with Bella, as quite a lot of the
stories shared supernatural or similarly off the wall subject matter
– and a few of the same writers.
As Japanese
decluttering guru Marie Kondo says, only keep something if it ‘sparks
joy’. That’s precisely what vintage magazines and their fiction
pages do for me. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!
