The People's Friend Magazine

29 December 2021

The People's Friend - Issue 7908 - Fantastic fiction with seven short stories to welcome in a new year of great reading. Willie Shand visits picturesque Strathardle, we pay tribute to much-loved 'High Road' actress and 'Friend' contributor Gwyneth Guthrie, Douglas McPherson celebrates Sooty at 70, Gillian Harvey visits the UK’s smallest museum, Ian Lloyd looks back on the Royal year, and Laura Brown explores the Feast of the Epiphany... Plus more stories, serials, health, gardening, knitting, recipes, travel, and much more inside. --- 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. 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.