Fifty years ago, to the day, Dan Dare simultaneously hit space and the news stands, but devotees of The Eagle’s space pilot might just quibble with the timing of an exhibition in his name that opened in Southport, Merseyside, yesterday evening.
Every schoolboy of a certain age knows that Wednesday was Dan day. That was when The Eagle hit doormats and its hero was thrust again into mortal combat with the Treens.At least the celebrations put the Mekon (Treen leader and custodian of a large green head) in the shade. He will skulk at the back of the exhibition in the Atkinson Art Gallery today while a Dan bust is unveiled and a commemorative church service is held for him in Southport, home of his creators, the Rev Marcus Morris and Frank Hampson.A better showing is naturally afforded to Dan’s faithful companions, Digby, Sir Hubert Guest (also known as “‘Orrible ‘Ubert”) and the delectable Professor Jocelyn Peabody.All of them ensured that The Eagle’s sales topped 900,000 in the 1950s. Thousands more knew the characters, as many copies were borrowed.”I was a latecomer to them all,” confessed Roy French, 62, of the Eagle Times Society, as he examined a rare 1950s Dan spacesuit yesterday. “Dan and The Eagle were aimed at 13-year-olds, but I was ill at the time It was ahead of its time.

Its Christian ethic combated the American trash which was flooding the market, but we all loved it.”Dan, originally created as intergalactic vicar Chaplain Dan Dare by Hampson for a magazine Rev Morris wanted Christian children to read, also broke the merchandising mould.Dan toothbrushes, jigsaws, stamp albums and other paraphernalia share the gallery with Eagle editions from Scandinavia, where our hero was the inimitable Dan Djerv.”The merchandising is the seamy bit,” said Mr French, referring to the story that Morris and Hampson did not benefit from the merchandising profits. So eager were they to sell their idea of a “cartoon paper” that they signed the first contract offered and waived all such rights “It meant that Frank died an unhappy man,” said Mr French. “The society aims to restore the credit he deserves.”The favourite item among the connoisseurs, unearthed only two years ago, is the original artwork of the Nature Detective series, dreamt up by the chocolate maker Rowntree, which knew better than to take up precious Eagle editorial space. Instead it asked Hampson to create the detective – who introduces children to tree bark, fish and birds – for half-page advertisements on which its own “longer last fruit gums” were branded.Dan, whose adventures are no longer published, may also prove longer lasting, according to 22-year-old art student Martin Baines. He discovered some of his father’s old copies of The Eagle, found “the artwork and the tone top rate”, and has produced 10 pages of drawings for a Dan website adventure, Project Pluto. “I’ve introduced some George Lucas lighting and there’s an element of conspiracy,” he said “The prime minister is in league with the Mekon Dan obviously doesn’t like it.”. A runner whose wife is due to give birth has been granted permission to run tomorrow’s London Marathon in Edinburgh, so he can be near herin case she goes into labour before he finishes.

A runner whose wife is due to give birth has been granted permission to run tomorrow’s London Marathon in Edinburgh, so he can be near herin case she goes into labour before he finishes.
At exactly the same time as 30,000 runners take to the streets of London – 9.30am – Mike Robertson, 35, will set off by himself – more than 400 miles away. He will be doing his 26 miles and 385 yards along the 1970 Commonwealth Games marathon course in the Scottish capital.A spokeswoman for the Flora London Marathon said: “This is a special day for Mike. He entered the race in London, but became concerned about his wife. He asked us if he could run in Edinburgh because he had done so much work raising sponsorship for his charities. We decided on this occasion that we should support what is an unusual request.”Mr Robertson’s wife, Joanna, is not expected to give birth until 5 May, but the couple wanted to take no chances because their first child, Max, arrived two weeks early.So far Mr Robertson, who is hoping to beat four hours for the run, has pledges totalling £1,200 in donations to the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust provided he finishes the course.Although he will be the only runner in Edinburgh aiming to complete the full race distance, about 20 people have offered to run part of the way alongside him, and a friend will follow behind on a bus.The London Marathon spokeswoman said: “Mike says that if the baby arrives, say, on Friday before the race on Sunday, he will do the run in London But we are not so sure that he will want to.”. Florence Nightingale’s diary has mysteriously arrived at a distant relative’s home, 150 years after the nursing pioneer wrote it. Florence Nightingale’s diary has mysteriously arrived at a distant relative’s home, 150 years after the nursing pioneer wrote it.
The maroon, leather-bound book was sent anonymously in a plain brown envelope to Claydon House, Buckinghamshire, where the nurse once lived.

Edmund Verney, her great-great step-nephew, said: “I think the family are slightly surprised and bemused but it’s very nice to have it here, among her other papers and letters.”The diary arrived at the National Trust property shortly before Christmas last year after a Radio 4 broadcast about the Victorian heroine “It was very strange. The envelope was just addressed to Claydon House and we didn’t know who it was meant for,” said Mr Verney, who lives in the east wing of the house.The “Lady with the Lamp”, who in 1854 led a team of nurses to care for British soldiers wounded in the Crimean War, wrote the diary while touring Europe and the Middle East in 1849. She embarked on her travels after rejecting a marriage proposal from Sir Harry Verney, who married her sister. The diary tells of her study of the European hospital system and her subsequent nursing training in Alexandria, Egypt.