Plot:
Shirley Groves runs away from her aunt and uncle and becomes queen of a gypsy clan. One girl, Lola, does not like Shirley; she thinks that she should be queen and wants to see Shirley dethroned.
Notes:
- Writer: Alison Christie (now Fitt)
Appeared:
- Queen of the Gypsies– Bunty: #106 (23 January 1960) – #116 (02 April 1960)
On the Jinty blog it has been revealed that Alison Christie (now Alison Fitt) wrote this story.
Queen Of The Gypsies ran in Bunty 106 (Jan. 23 1960) – 116 (Apr. 2 1960). In the Appeared section above, the word Gypsies is spelt incorrectly.
Thanks for mentioning my story, Queen of the gypsies. Sorry I spelt gypsies incorrectly. I wrote that story while working as a sub on Bunty, at the age of 17. The editor gave us all working on Bunty the title, and said he’d use the best story-line out of the one we each came up with. Mine was the best, so I got to write it. I was very pleased to have won the chance, and it was the first picture story I ever wrote.
The previous comment was directed at me, I misspelt gypsies in the summary.
It’s great that you have good memories of writing this, and I’m impressed you were only 17 when you wrote it, I wasn’t doing anything so creative when I was a teenager!
Oh, is that how they wrote stories sometimes? The editor comes up with a title, the writers come up with a storyline with that title, and the editor takes best pick? Intriguing. I wonder what other ways they used to come up with storylines.
To answer your question, Misty fan- that was the only story I wrote where the editor threw out an idea and I had the best one. ALL my other picture stories came from my own imagination, with no input from anyone else.
Thank you for the information, Alison.
The rights and wrongs, or preferences, regarding the spelling of gypsies/gipsies is surely only a side issue here. The spelling chosen, and printed in Bunty was Gypsies, so that is the only important point.