CHRISTMAS is a time when stories are told and in the early days of the Bolton Evening News world famous authors such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Thomas Hardy wrote fiction for the paper. Wes Wright leafs through some of the correspondence with the literary greats. . .

WHAT would it cost to persuade some of the world's greatest modern authors to write for The Bolton News?

Would Martin Amis, Salman Rushdie or Monica Ali drop everything and write short stories for our humble paper?

It's highly unlikely but back in the 1880s top name authors were flattered to be asked to produce stories for publication in serial form in The Bolton Evening News.

They quickly realised the power of the press at that time could introduce many thousands of potential new readers to their books, novels and poetry.

Authors such as JM Ballantyne, HG Wells, E Nesbit, Dora Russell, Arnold Bennett, RD Blackmoor, Arthur Quiller-Couch, Wilkie Collins, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Rider Haggard, Thomas Hardy and Jerome K Jerome agreed to write for the paper - for a fee of course.

Other authors including JM Barrie, Robert Louis Stevenson and George Bernard Shaw wrote back politely declining the offer.

The Tillotson's Fiction Bureau had been started in the 1870s in Bolton when WF Tillotson, who was joint founder of the Bolton Evening News with his father John in 1867, wrote letters to authors inviting them to write fiction which would serialised in the newspaper and then used in other papers here and abroad.

Sometimes the author's work was rejected. In one case WF Tillotson famously rejected a commissioned work from Thomas Hardy on the grounds it was blasphemous and obscene. It was later published as Tess of the d'Urbevilles.

The legacy of the fiction bureau has meant that The Bolton News has a fantastic archive of handwritten and signed letters in pristine condition from all of these great authors. The originals are being held by Bolton Museum.

In November 1889, JM Ballantyne wrote, in a beautiful neat script, to Tillotson asking for a copy of the paper containing his short stories "Finding His Fate" and "The Hunter's Wedding".

On June 5, 1892, JM Barrie wrote in an almost illegible scrawly hand agreeing to write a story for the paper.

Marie Corelli, replied on December 9, 1890, from Longridge Road in Earl's Court, London, saying that she couldn't write anything until June or July of the following year.

This feisty author also added: "It must also be distinctly understood that I never part with anyone of my copyrights as I bestow as much earnest care and thought in small works as large."

Authors were not unafraid of a little bit of horsetrading over their fees either as Arthur Qullier-Couch demonstrated in a letter to Tillotson dated September 22, 1894.

On notepaper headed The Haven, Fowey in Cornwall, he wrote: "I enclose a short story. You will remember that you offered me £40 for one of 5,000 words and £20 for one of 2,000 odd.

"Well it happens that the enclosed won't quite turn to 5,000, though it will make 4,000. If you care to have it, therefore for £35, you are welcome to it."

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who brought fictional forensic detective Sherlock Holmes to life, sent a story intriguingly called: "The Great Brown-Pericord Motor" as well as including rave press notices of his other works. He also mentioned he had written two successful shilling books.

Thomas Hardy wrote from his home in Wimborne, Dorset in August 1881: "I will write you a Christmas story of between 4,000 and 8,000 words at the price of £7 per 2,000, provided you send me proofs of the same, early enough for publishing simultaneously in America."

Robert Louis Stevenson sent a curious letter about withdrawing from an agreement though it's not clear whether it was him or the paper which was withdrawing. The letter ends: "Better luck next time."

George Bernard Shaw, who earned a lot of money as a theatre critic and from other journalism, wrote to the paper in April 1900.

He wrote: "I have nothing of the kind on hand just now, being very busy with books, not novels . . . Gradually, then, I am out of the market as a commercial journalist."

In another letter he stated: "I am at present very full of literary work and trying to extract myself from journalism."

And the age old problem of a writer meeting a deadline. This one from HG Wells was obviously in response to an enquiring letter from the paper. Almost testily he wrote back: "As soon as I can possibly do so I will send you the story."

There is still a link to the fiction bureau in the shape of former Bolton Evening News employee Bill Sheppard who still lives in Bolton.

The Sheppards served Tillotsons from 1885 to 1963. His grandfather Robert joined in 1885 as an office boy and eventually took over the Fiction Bureau.

  • The original letters can be viewed by appointment at Bolton Museum and Archive.