Toni Townsend

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The True Quality Of Rural Charm

Yes, very well, sit up and pay attention.

The true quality of rural charm lies in the absence of man-made pot-pourri like office blocks and bags of cement. Horses are all right, they fit in fine. So does grass. It's also pretty authentic if there are trees around and a bit of honeysuckle in the hedge adds a quality very true indeed.

A man in a car is out. So is a petrol lorry.

But TONI TOWNSEND is in. This lovely Hampshire housewife is corkingly rural because her charm is natural and unspoiled. Before she became a housewife Toni worked as an advertising assistant, and there was glass and concrete all round her.

Now she lives in the country and goes with the trees, the hedges, and the honeysuckle. Sort of lovely, like.

Beautiful Britons No 169 - December 1969

Angela Shaw

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Long Girl Short Mini

Well yes, that's the way it goes these days. The girls with the longest legs seem to wear the shortest minis. Mrs. Ethel Bubblestoke is well aware of this and every time secretary ANGELA SHAW trips long-leggedly down the road, Mrs. Bubblestoke drags Mr. Bubblestoke indoors.

Mr. Bubblestoke is a retired gas-meter checker and spends most of his time in the garden so that he doesn't aggravate the missus. Whenever he's in the house it's "Lift your feet, Harvey," or "Mind your boots, you lummox," or "Now look what you've done, clumsy." So, they both like it when she's in the house and he's in the garden, with a nice compromise at meal times.

But seeing how easy on the eye Angela is, and knowing retired men can't keep their minds on hoeing any easier than younger men, poor old Harvey gets dragged indoors and put into the cupboard under the stairs whenever Angela hoves into view. While there he checks the gas meter. It's an automatic reflex action, of course. When the missus lets him out Harvey says, "We've clocked up another therm since yesterday, dear." "Yes, never mind that," says Ethel, "out you go and just mind where you're looking.

Beautiful Britons No 156 - November 1968

Mickey Jines

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Meet Mickey

May we introduce someone we think you'll find different from all those insurance agents who keep knocking at your door?

By all means. I've been having the grottiest time lately; everything has been a dead drag. To make it grottier I got jammed in a tube train yesterday and nearly left my right leg in the tunnel between Charing Cross and St. James' Park. So, as you can imagine, I'm all set for something beautiful to happen to me.

In that case, meet MICKEY JINES, the most fascinating shape of them all in a gingham dress. Hold on there's no need to roll about, all you need do is click your heels and raise your hat.

I can't help it if she floors me. What can I do to make her life beautiful and ecstatic?

Escort her round London. She wants to see the Houses of Parliament Piccadilly Circus and the Tower.

I'll take her by tube. With any luck we'll get jammed in together.

Spick No 174 - May 1968

Martina Evans

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Come Out Whoever You Are

Ah-hah, and whose dark, magnetic eyes are those peeping from behind the fringed equivalent of a Persian yashmak?

To whom do those long, elegant legs belong to?

It can't be Nancy Sirloin, she's gone off to join a sailor in Western Australia in a trouser suit. It can't be Lilian Bullivant either, she lives in a converted barge at Greenwich and doesn't hide behind anything except a sou-wester and a Grecian tarpaulin.

If you're getting repressed and frustrated, bear up, you're suffering from nothing a bottle of hypochondriac solution can't cure. We'll throw in our own assistance by disclosing those dark, magnetic eyes and those long, elegant legs belong to MARTINA EVANS, who has the delightful job of serving behind the frill-bedecked counter of a ladies' lingerie shop.

Take your girlfriend there and buy her something delicately ravishing for Easter. Martina will be a great help, even though her ambition has little to do with selling lingerie.

She wants to be an air hostess.

Come fly with me and never mind about fastening the safety-belts.

Beautiful Britons No 135 - February 1967

Jacki Owen

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Swinger

All set to swing it in the park is JACKI OWEN, fashion model from the Midlands. Activated by gay go-go, Jacki is representative of the swinging girls of today. We asked her what she thought of the maxi fashions, and she said, "But I’ll be all covered up, I'll feel like a brown paper parcel. I'm not ready for the maxi, I'm too young ask me again in twenty-five years."

Span No 163 - March 1968

Ann Grainger, Jane Rennie and Cherie Scott

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Ann Grainger, Jane Rennie and Cherie Scott

Three very popular ToCo lovelies. I'm not sure if this picture was ever used in a magazine without having to search through all my copies. If it wasn't, then it should have been. It has been taken from a contact sheet and is another nice contribution from tocofan.

Britt Hampshire

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Going Good

Nothing to do with a race meeting, just to do with the fact that the going in the glamour world is good for BRITT HAMPSHIRE, a country girl who has found in London the chance of fame and fortune.

Since she arrived some months ago the photographers have been falling over their tripods to get her in focus. Britt in focus is an absolute must.

What was that loud noise? Just another cameraman going wallop.

Span No 156 - August 1967

Ruth Cavendish

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Glad You're Back

Nobody gave a hoot when old Job Kuttenblower threw his spade into the turnips and went off to work in a bicycle shop in Nowton-under-Pond. He never had been the kind of feller to fill you with rapture, so when he went off and never came back, well, it didn't bother anybody except the man who grew turnips. He had to find someone else to dig them and there aren't many people who want to spend all that time with turnips.

Naturally, there's an important difference between a feller like Job and a girl like RUTH CAVENDISH. If we lived next door to Ruth, we'd break our heart every time she went off to spend a week-end with her old college chums, There are some girls one likes to keep in focus all the time. Keeping Ruth in focus gives us vibratory excruciations and you can't get pills for that sort of twittering oscillation, not even on the National Health. On the other hand, who wants to be cured?

It's sometime since we've seen Ruth. Glad you're back, beautiful, even if we are all over quivers.

Beautiful Britons No 138 - May 1967

Lynda Farrell and Liz McEwen

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Well Netted

It wasn't until LYNDA FARRELL and LIZ McEWEN got down to the task of adjusting their outdoor badminton net that they realised the relative simplicity of adjustment could become a complicated entanglement.

Liz couldn't believe that Lynda could be so fiendish, and Lynda couldn't believe that Liz could get so impossibly wrapped up in the thing. Liz is the one in the patterned mini-dress and Lynda is the one with straps on her shoes.

Spick No 167 - October 1967

Helen Milligan and Ruth Cavendish

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Fashionable Sports

Out for the pleasure of knocking a ball about, HELEN MILLIGAN is a fashion model and RUTH CAVENDISH is training to become one, so you could say these two sporting lovelies wield a very fashionable forehand.

Both girls are Scots and the reason why they're equipped with racquets but not with tennis outfits is because the summer hasn't arrived in Scotland yet. The grass is still wet and boots still the answer.

But even a boot can fill up with water if you sink it far enough into a watery ditch, and all you can do then if you're a wet-footed Ruth is to get Helen to pull it off for you.

Time out for just sitting and doing nothing except, of course, looking long-legged and cute. There's no doubt that two bonny Scots make an even better picture than one.

Beautiful Britons No 102 - April 1964

Anna Stevens

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Weather Forecast

When ANNA STEVENS, who likes an outdoor life, phoned the weather man to find out his forecast for the day after tomorrow he wasn't all that pleased.

'My dear Mrs. Whatsit," he began.

"Miss, if you don't mind," said Anna.

"Miss, then," he said. "Well, my dear Miss Whatsit, I'm not a long-range prophet, you know. I only work it out in relation to the climatic condition of the immediate future.”

“Yes, " said Anna, "that's why I rang you, I want to know what it's going to be like the day after tomorrow. I'm going on a ten-mile ramble providing it doesn't rain. Is it going to rain weather man,” I only go in for what's "I'm trying to tell you, going to happen in a few hours. The day after tomorrow could be next year as far as I'm concerned. I can tell you what it might be like tonight “I’m not going for any ramble tonight," said Anna, "I'm going to wash my hair”.

"Oh, really?" said the weather man. "What colour?"

"Chestnut”, said Anna.

"Sounds fascinating." said the weather man. "I tell you what, I'II work it out as scientifically as I can, then come round and see you about it."

"Well, you can't blame me for trying” said the weather man. “I want a weather forecast, not a date, " said Anna.

Beautiful Britons No 156 - November 1968

Suzanne Roquet

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Berlin Look

Going wild about the swinging whizz of Britain's mini fashions is West Berlin, and symptomatic of West Berlin's British look is model. SUZANNE ROQUET.

Beautiful Britons No 135 - February 1967