The Paraffin Boys

Step back into 1950s and early 60s South London through the eyes of Stephen Herbert, acclaimed academic, film historian, and author, in his unforgettable memoir The Paraffin Boys.

From his working-class childhood in Streatham to becoming a leading expert in motion picture, pre-cinema, and photographic technology, Herbert offers a vivid and heartfelt account of a bygone era when children roamed free and imagination knew no bounds.

More than just nostalgia, this memoir provides a thoughtful reflection on the freedom and ingenuity of childhood adventures before the age of constant supervision—a poignant perspective especially relevant today. Readers will delight in Herbert’s recollections of friendship, daring escapades with electricity and fireworks, and the early passions that shaped his extraordinary career.

Filled with warmth, humour, and insightful commentary, The Paraffin Boys is a captivating journey into British social history, popular culture, and the spirit of South London’s streets. Perfect for history buffs, local residents, and anyone curious about how “the child becomes father to the man.”

STEPHEN HERBERT (1951-2023) was a British visual media historian, author, editor, publisher and projectionist. Herbert was a projectionist at various London cinemas from 1969 to 1973, before spending sixteen years as a technician in audio-visual education. He joined the British Film Institute’s National Film Theatre in 1989, first as deputy then as head of Technical Department. This included responsibility for projection at the London Film Festival and the Museum of the Moving Image. He was also a development team member for the BFI IMAX from 1995 to 1997. Later on, his knowledge of early visual media was sought out by academics, museums, programme makers and film producers, and his expertise in all things to do with the Victorian photographer Eadweard Muybridge led to a visiting research fellowship at Kingston University. He also gave advice to moving image museums in Dubai and Qatar and was a technical consultant on Martin Scorsese’s film Hugo (2011), ensuring that its marvellous recreation of the studio of the French film pioneer Georges Méliès was authentic.

Herbert is also the author of several books including the biography of Edwardian visual media pioneer Theodore Brown (1997) and Industry, Liberty and a Vision (1998), on inventor and political theorist Wordsworth Donisthorpe.  As an editor Herbert compiled a trio of three-volume sets on pre-cinema, early film and early television for Routledge, and co-edited Magic Images, Servants of Light and The Encyclopaedia of the Magic Lantern, all published by the Magic Lantern Society, for whom he was research officer 1988–2000.