ABSTRACT
By the start of the First World War, periodical print cultures, whether at home or abroad, had been organized around roughly the same annual patterns of production and distribution. When sales and subscription circulations of British periodicals increased during the year—an event that typically coincided with the spring (April), summer (July), and Christmas (November) book sales seasons—these monthly notices in the Kenya Gazette listing periodicals "found loose" at the Mombasa and Nairobi POs reflected a similar increased volume of print subscription traffic. Subscribers to Cassell's Magazine of Fiction living in Nairobi in 1913 received their copies of February's issue, featuring Sax Rohmer's The Sins of Severac Bablon, within weeks of their cosmopolitan London contemporaries who purchased copies from their local bookstalls at Victoria Station. Following the exciting 11-part serialization of Baroness Orczy's latest historical romance, Eldorado (June 1912-April 1913), colonial subscribers to The Grand Magazine living in Mombasa participated directly in linked global reading communities from a considerable geographical distance.
