The Gambols

The Gambols is a British comic strip created by Barry Appleby in 1950 which was originally published in the Daily Express and is now seen in the Mail on Sunday.

The two central characters are George and Gaye Gambol, a happily married, suburban, middle class couple. George is the main breadwinner while Gaye is primarily a housewife, but she does occasionally take on part-time office jobs.

The stories revolve around the Gambols' everyday life, in particular Gaye's passion for shopping and George's attempts at home improvements. The couple is childless but, at least once a year, they have their nephew and niece, Flivver and Miggy, stay with them.

Most of the Gambols strips were three or four panels long; the Sunday Express, however, published longer strips as it was assumed that people had more time to read a paper on a Sunday. Some of the strips also appeared in colour.

From the 1960s, Appleby's wife Dobs (Doris) was credited alongside him. After Dobs' death in 1985, Appleby continued with the strip alone until his own death in 1996. The strip was then taken over by Roger Mahoney until it moved from the Daily Express to the Mail on Sunday in 1999.