The People's Friend Special Magazine

18 August 2021

The People's Friend Special - Issue 213 - Fantastic fiction and features, with 14 sparkling short stories, Lorna Cowan takes a literary tour inspired by the Brontë sisters, Pat Coulter visits the home of TV’s 'The Repair Shop', Polly Pullar tours Scotland’s stunning Inner Hebrides, Dianne Boardman enjoys an adventure on the Windward Isles, Laura Brown celebrates female cyclists through the decades, and Ali Henderson meets a woman whose life was changed by a fox... plus recipes, nature, travel, fabulous fiction, crafts, and lots more. --- Back in 1869, when the recently widowed Victoria was on the throne and Gladstone was Prime Minister, when Alexander Graham Bell was yet to make the first telephone call and Darwin's "Origin Of Species" had been published just ten years earlier, a brand-new magazine - "The People's Friend" - hit the shelves for the very first time. This is The People's Friend Special. Right from the start, the "Friend's" mission statement was clear: "We intend that fully one half of the 'Friend' shall be devoted to fiction... the 'Friend' being intended for fireside reading, nothing will be admitted into its columns having the slightest tendency to corrupt the morals either of old or young." As the years passed, the "Friend" grew and thrived. Through massive social upheaval, wars, strikes, financial crashes and natural disasters, the magazine continued, dispensing entertainment, instruction, comfort and good cheer to its readers. It became a constant in readers' lives; a true friend to turn to in times of trouble.