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'The Gem Library', to give it its full title, was the
sister paper to 'The Magnet
Library'. In an article entitled 'Boy's Weeklies' George Orwell
considered Gem to be less popular than Magnet. Although less popular, Gem
and Magnet were very similar in that they centred their stories around
schools. Gem's stories were based around a school called St. James College,
better known to the pupils as St. Jim's, and the adventures of the pupils in
the Fourth and Shell forms. One of the best known characters from Gem was
'Tom Merry'.
The Gem and Magnet dominated the storypaper market at the
time and it lead DC Thomson to launch 'The Big 5' which were 'The
Adventure', 'The Rover', 'The
Wizard', 'The Skipper' and
The Hotspur. Gem's run came to an end with its merger with 'Triumph'.
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