The Lady Magazine

18 October 2019

Dear Readers, As we all know, moving home is one of the most challenging experiences in life. In the midst of a particularly stressful relocation, when the sofa wouldn’t fit in the living room and we had no electricity, my husband decided the most important issue was arranging our books. By author’s name. And genre. And sub-genre. Enough said. So you can imagine how the past few weeks have been for The Lady. We have left our headquarters of 128 years for a new life in Hertfordshire and Norfolk. Change can be hard, but it can also be immensely exciting. In this issue you will see many familiar faces, and a few fresh ones too. Our brilliant new columnist, the best-selling author Maggie Alderson, offers an insight into what writers really read beneath the bedsheets. Lydia Bell reveals the unlikely friendship between the Queen and a dockworker’s daughter, while Ciar Byrne looks at the amazing renewal of the gardens at Vita Sackville-West’s home, Charleston. Eighty years after one of my favourite films, Gone With the Wind, was released, Jo Knowsley explains how the real Twelve Oaks mansion that inspired Margaret Mitchell’s novel has been transformed for a new era. Homes and buildings are important, of course. But people and the memories we share matter so much more. Our loyal team creates The Lady – but you, the readers, are the backbone of this magazine, not the postcode. Best wishes Maxine Frith, Editor