The People's Friend Special Magazine

1 December 2021

The People's Friend Special - Issue 218 - Welcome to our Winter Special!100 pages packed with great reading, with 20 original short stories by favourite authors, eight pages of puzzles to test your wits, tempting cakes to bake and a cosy Icelandic inspired cowl and mittens to knit. Ahead of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, Lorna Cowan pays tribute to Team GB’s sporting heroes. Nature writer Brian Jackman shares highlights from his incredible career, Bill Gibb meets the women who are growing tea in Scotland and Willie Shand uncovers the true story of William McGonagall, the notoriously bad poet. Polly Pullar looks at the spectacular return of the red kite, Dianne Boardman delves into an almost forgotten classic by Charles Dickens and Laura Brown celebrates the history of hairdressing... plus recipes, nature, travel, puzzles, 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.