L. E. Ransome.

L. E. Ransome (aka Eric Lyth Rosman, 1901-1993) was one of the most prolific authors of juvenile stories that the Amalgamated Press ever employed,

joining the staff in 1916 and writing for it from the late 1910’s until IPC took over in the early 1960’s. His range was vast too, from school and adventure tales for the boys and girls story papers to mystery serials and animal comedies written under a wide range of pseudonyms. He also substituted occasionally for Charles Hamilton in the Gem and Magnet and was instrumental in launching the School Friend in 1919, completely taking over the Hilda Richards by-line from 1925-1930. He was substituting for Horace Phillips in the Schoolgirls’ Own in Nov 1925 when he introduced his most famous creation to Morcove, Jemima Carstairs, but moving her in Dec 1925 to Cliff House, which was then “his school”. Over the decades he wrote for many papers as a freelance, also including many adult papers such as Modern Woman. While he was writing (as Ivor Melbourne) Dave’s Diary for the Lion of the 1950’s, his last long series Trixie's Diary was appearing in the Schoolgirls’ Own Library, in fact one of his tales as Ida Melbourne was the penultimate issue in Sep 1963. The list below was compiled by Ray Hopkins and relates to Ransome’s chronological output for 5 AP girls' papers as:

Barbara Ransome, Ida Melbourne and Elizabeth Chester in Schoolgirls’ Own

Ida Melbourne in School Friend

Hilda Richards, Ida Melbourne and Elizabeth Chester in Schoolgirl

Ida Melbourne in School-Days

Ida Melbourne and Elizabeth Chester in Schoolgirls’ Weekly

Listings and scans kindly provided by Gary Panzcyszyn.