Tit-Bits

Tit-Bits (or to give it its full title Tit-Bits from all the interesting Books, Periodicals, and Newspapers of the World) was a British weekly magazine founded by George Newnes on 22nd October 1881.

The magazine was a mass circulation commercial publication which reached sales of between 400,000 and 600,000, with the emphasis on human interest stories concentrating on drama and sensation. [Journalism: A Critical History by Martin Conboy] Short stories and full length fiction was also incorporated, including works by authors such as Henry Rider Haggard and Isaac Asimov, plus three very early stories by Christopher Priest.

The first humorous article by P. G. Wodehouse, 'Men Who Missed Their Own Weddings' appeared in TitBits in November 1900. [From the chronology maintained by the [http://wodehouse.ru/chrono.htm Russian Wodehouse Society] ]

The magazine name has survived as "Titbits International". Reference is made to this magazine in James Joyce's "Ulysses", George Orwell's "Animal Farm", James Hilton's "Lost Horizon" and H. G. Wells' "The First Men in the Moon".

In "All Things Considered" by G. K. Chesterton, the author contrasts "Tit-Bits" with the "Times", saying: " [an author] ask himself whether he would really rather be asked in the next two hours to write the front page of the Times, which is full of long leading articles, or the front page of Tit-Bits, which is full of short jokes."

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