Beryl the Peril appeared in the first issue of "The Topper" in 1953. She was created to be a female equivalent to "The Beano"'s Dennis the Menace. Davey Law, her artist and creator, drew inspiration from his daughter, who would often pull faces during her tantrums. The strips were similar in concept to the Dennis the Menace ones in that she would cause chaos through menacing her neighbours, parents and school teachers. In 1958, Beryl was chosen as one of the few of D.C. Thomson's characters to earn an annual all to herself, consisting solely from reprints in past years. When Law retired
Black Peril countries'. Along the road to that settled character white males in Rhodesia often soothed their feelings of isolation by sexual relations with black women. These sexual encounters were not usually based on mutual attraction but on coercion. As two observers have noted they were 'similar to those between masters and slaves, feudal lords and serfs,conquerors and conquered in other countries'. This side of the interracial sexual coin was the 'white peril', a term which rarely appeared in Rhodesian annals. The 'black peril' became a public issue in the settler community within South Rhodesia just after the turn of the century.