The People's Friend Special Magazine

29 December 2021

The People's Friend Special - Issue 219 - Welcome to our last Special of 2021! As we prepare to see out the old year and welcome in the new, we have lots of great reading to entertain and inspire you, with 14 seasonal short stories and a gripping eight-page crime mystery by Alison Carter. Neil McAllister explores the history of the UK’s new towns, while Lorna Cowan discovers the delights of a much older city – Gdansk in Poland. Polly Pullar writes in praise of the often misunderstood badger, and Sarah Muir finds out about the Queen’s Green Canopy, an initiative to create a living legacy for future generations. We’ve an easy craft project to upcycle furniture, recipes for a menu to serve just two and a nostalgic look back at the golden days of Saturday cinema, too... plus 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.