The People's Friend Magazine

9 March 2022

The People's Friend - Issue 7918 - Fabulous fiction with seven short stories, including touching family drama 'A Perfect Fit' by Teresa Ashby, and 'Coronation Gardens', Laura Tapper’s compelling new serial set on the coast of East Anglia. Willie Shand heads to the Highlands to explore Fort Augustus and Loch Ness, meet Cornwall’s plastic-hunting pirates who are helping to clean up our seas, Woodland adviser Kate Holl tells Alex Corlett about the importance of reflowering, enjoy Marion McGivern’s fabulous Pi Day concoction of catering and geometry, and Steve Cotterill goes the extra mile for a charity close to his heart... 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.