The People's Friend

Richard Brooks talks

about his book on the Post Office scandal

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WHAT IS WASSAILING? ALL ABOUT THE 12TH NIGHT TRADITION CHARMING CHESTER THIS WEEK’S COVER DESTINATION

Willie Shand enjoys a winter wander in Perthshire

AROUND six miles north of Blairgowrie, the Glenshee road crosses the River Ardle at Bridge of Cally. Not far below the bridge, the Ardle, which flows down from Strathardle, will lose its identity as it joins forces with the Black Water. Together they...

Peek behind the scenes of the Scottish Ballet’s Christmas show with Laura Coventry

AT the age of just thirteen, dancer Hannah Cubitt joined Scottish Ballet. Today, she is gearing up for another festive show with the world-famous company. For Hannah, rehearsing and performing in a winter show is always a joy because of the fun and...

1 1 NEW STORIES WIN A LUXURY HAMPER

Willie Shand explores the quirky Stirlingshire village of Kippen

SHELTERED to the south by the Gargunnock and Fintry hills, the village of Kippen overlooks Flanders Moss and the flat Carse of Stirling to the loftier hills of the Highlands. This winter’s morning, the northern horizon is shaped by many well tramped...

this week

Hello, and welcome to the new issue of the “Friend”. You know we love a good animal rescue story, and this week we have two for you. On page 26, we find out how baby wallaby Elvis became part of Jenni Maxwell, from Cotswold Wildlife Park’s,...

Holly Crawford tells us about a yarn project depicting Britain’s war-time history

BRITAIN at war has been depicted in books, TV shows, documentaries, films and now for the first time, wool art. The Longest Yarn 2: Britain At War is an 80-metre-long work exploring how Britain coped during the dark days of World War II, from its...

Pat Coulter explores Dorset’s Jurassic Coast and amazing Abbotsbury

OVER the decades I’ve experienced the joy of discovering so many of Dorset’s delights, both coastal and countryside. Of course, it’s a literary landscape forever linked with its most famous son, Thomas Hardy. Despite Dorset’s enduring popularity with...

PAPER LOVES TREES

European forests, which provide wood for making paper, paper-based packaging and many other products, have been growing by 1,500 football pitches every day!

New hope for a species under threat

EXCLUSIVE ROYAL FICTION BUMPER ISSUE

Behind The Mask

THE train was slowing. Augustine Brown looked again at the letter in her hand. Exciting news! her sister Cordelia had written. “An unexpected guest at the hotel: Maria Mironova. Exciting news indeed. Maria Mironova, the worldfamous...

Performer Nik Kershaw talks music and touring with Steve Cain

FORTY years ago, Nik Kershaw topped the charts with hits including “Wouldn’t It Be Good”, “I Won’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me” and “The Riddle”. Now, he’s written a book and is heading off on a new tour, titled Musings & Lyrics. “There are some very...

A RICH FASHION HISTORY

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE NATIONAL TRUST

Hello, and welcome to the new issue of the “Friend”.

We’re wishing many happy returns to choirmaster extraordinaire Gareth Malone this week. It’s nearly 20 years since Gareth rose to fame on TV show “The Choir” and “The Choir: Military Wives” and it’s safe to say that he’s become a bit of a national...

Neil Mcallister takes a trip down memory lane in the Welsh National Park, Brecon Beacons

BACK in the days when a tankful of petrol cost as much as we pay for a coffee today, our sunny Sunday afternoon treat was a drive out. If we weren’t aiming for the beach, our route took us north to the wild, remote and mysterious Bannau Brycheiniog –...

Hello, and welcome to your latest issue of the “Friend”.

I may be biased, but I honestly believe you will not read a better selection of entertaining reads than you’ll find in these pages. We’re fond of telling the stories of inspiring people in your magazine. This week we are featuring a group who are...

Stuart

Hello, and welcome to this new issue of “The People’s Friend”. Pour yourself a cuppa and relax with our great fiction. We are off to exotic climes this week with the opening chapters of our exciting new serial. As you can probably guess from the...

Neil Mcallister enjoys the mix of ancient and modern in the lovely port of Plymouth

PLYMOUTH holds a unique place in history, mainly thanks to the perfect natural harbour where the River Tamar meets the sea. It was here the English fleet was at anchor, when Sir Francis Drake carried on with his game of bowls, confident that the...

Extra SUPER SUMMER Mini Mag

Hello, and welcome to your latest issue of the “Friend”.

Art has the power to inspire, entertain and, frequently, make people think. That is certainly the case for the work of zoologist and part-time sculptor Sara Cox, who we speak to on p53. Sara is raising awareness of the plight of birds, which are facing...

Neil Mcallister visits the metropolitan borough of Salford for an exhibition

SALFORD is very different from when my four-year-old father and his younger sister were taken there to live with his grandparents when their mother passed away. Their father, who worked on the railways, passed their care over to their mother’s...

Agnes Stevenson chats to Anna Rathband about her role as filming manager for the National Trust for Scotland

WHEN Oscarnominated actress Saoirse Ronan swept through the corridors of Falkland Palace, dressed in the silks and pearls of Mary Queen of Scots, the sensation of actually being present at the court of Scotland’s ill-fated monarch was so strong that...

Jane Barrie chats to TV and stage legend Paul Nicholas about returning to the stage at eighty years old

HE’S the distinguished elder statesman of British musical theatre and, now eighty, Paul Nicholas shows no sign of slowing down. Paul, who shot to fame in BBC sitcom “Just Good Friends”, is starring in the West End return of “Fawlty Towers: The Play”,...

THE BEST GARDEN ADVICE

Hello, and welcome to your latest issue of the “Friend”.

We have a wealth of inspirational real life stories this week. Last year we found out about the incredible work of charity Blankets For Baby Rhinos. The charity called on people to knit and crochet blankets to help comfort young, orphaned rhinos. And...

Neil Mcallister explores the charming heart of “the garden of England”

BACK in 1606, Lord North was unwell. His “lingering consumptive disorder” baffled his doctors. A stay in a remote hunting lodge cadged from a friend hadn’t helped, but on a country ride he came across a spring, whose waters had an unappealing “shining...

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Willie Shand delights in the shores of Loch Fyne

MENTION fjords and we tend to think of Norway. Scotland, though, has around 200 of its own fjords gouged out by the retreating glaciers towards the end of the last ice age. The longest, Loch Fyne (or Loch of the Vine) extends 40 miles inland from the...

Guinness World Records at Seventy: Douglas Mcpherson chats to the editor of the famous book

LIKE many people, Craig Glenday remembers receiving his first “Guinness Book of Records” as a boy. “I was obsessed with space and astronomy, and it had an astronaut on the cover. That was a very exciting visual for me as a kid,” he recalls. Little...

Delicious recipes for party treats

this week

Hello and welcome to your latest issue of the “Friend”. Although the editorial team is mainly based in Scotland, we do have an office in Fleet Street and there are times when we venture down south. For me, a keen walker, I love nothing more than...

CREATE A MODERN CLASSIC

Stuart Johnstone, Editor.

Hello, and welcome to your latest issue of the “Friend”. Can you believe we are approaching Easter already? It seems like no time since we were taking down the Christmas trees and finishing the last box of mince pies. It is just me, or does time really...

Richard Webber takes in the beautiful area around Woolacombe

RELAXING over a delicious breakfast at the Watersmeet Hotel, Paula and I stared across Woolacombe Bay towards our day’s objective – Baggy Point. This windswept headland boasts dramatic cliffs home to nesting seabirds, an array of wildflowers and rare...

Simon Whaley visits captivating Cannock Chase, hidden in the West Midlands

SOMETIMES my imagination sends me on a wild goose chase. I was sitting in a Cannock supermarket café, eavesdropping on other people’s conversations, as most writers do, when two women walked past me with their tea and cakes. “Have you visited Freda’s...

Kate Chapman finds how Marie Curie worker Julie Bradley turned her grief around by helping others

WHEN Julie Bradley’s mum passed away after a cancer battle, she decided to volunteer for the Marie Curie companion service as a way of giving something back to the community. Julie, from Glasgow, then quit the retail job she’d had since leaving school...

Bill Gibb discovers the history of the Six Triple Eight, a ground-breaking US army unit

IN our modern world, letters might sometimes appear to be of a different age. But the handwritten word can mean so much, and that was never truer than during World War II, when a missive from a loved one when far from home meant the world to...

Familiar Danger by Joanne Duncan Better Late Than Never by Alison Wassell In Full View by Eirin Thompson Good Habits by Stefania Hartley What The Heart Wants by Audrey Mary Brooks Lessons To Learn by Alison Carter The More You Know by Wendy Janes The Ghos

SERIES: SERIAL: SERIAL: SOAP: 23 33 36 61 63

Plus THE FIRTH OF FORTH:

THIS WEEK’S COVER DESTINATION

COOKERY: make these delicious yet small suppers for reduced appetites

Garlic and Herb Chicken Breasts with Roasted Vegetables Ingredients (Serves 2) 300 g baby new potatoes, scrubbed 200 g Chantenay (small) carrots, scrubbed 2 tbs olive oil 1 garlic clove, thinly sliced 2 mini chicken fillets 1 tbs plain...

Simon Whaley takes a train to the bustling town of Welshpool

WELSHPOOL has not one, not two, but three railway stations. For a small town on the Welsh borders with a population of around 6,000 people, that seems a little greedy! My 20-minute train ride from Shrewsbury has delivered me to Welshpool’s mainline...

COLOURFUL CROCHET JUMPER

Plus

BEAUTIFUL BANBURY, OXFORDSHIRE: THIS WEEK’S COVER DESTINATION THE HIGHLAND DANCING PHYSIO “I HAVE AN INTEREST IN HELPING PEOPLE”

CROCHET: add a colourful touch to your outfit with a nice set of accessories

MATERIALS Of Rico Creative Melange Chunky, 2 x 50g balls in Curry Green (039) for each item – capelet, beret and pair of mittens; 5 mm, 6 mm and 6.5 mm crochet hooks (6.5 mm for capelet only); yarn needle; button (for capelet); pompom maker or...

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| HEALTH | NOSTALGIA | NATURE | PUZZLES

Delicious ideas for wraps

DON’T MISS

| HEALTH | NOSTALGIA | NATURE | PUZZLES

In The Highlands by Jeannie Mackenzie

THERE’S no market for your type of fiction any more,” my agent said. “Fantasy was big in children’s fiction until last year. Now no-one wants it. “Now it’s all warm-hearted family stuff and animals. Do you think you could do something like that?” I...

What’s INSIDE

Hello, and welcome to the second of our two fabulous festive bumper issues. Did you enjoy the first two instalments of our exclusive serial, “What A Performance!”, in our previous issue? I hope you did. Don’t miss the next two chapters in this...

What Would Santa Do? by Jan Halstead

MAX peered through a light flurry of sleet as Pete of Pete’s Pick-ups winched his car on to a trailer. Why had he ever believed this could turn out well? True, it was Christmas. True, other people were out socialising. But online dating? Him? It was...

1 1 AMAZING STORIES | NO.1 FOR FICTION

Neil Mcallister explores the scenic gem that is the Vale of Berkeley

THERE is something uniquely appealing about places that man or nature has conspired to isolate. One such place is the Vale of Berkeley, sandwiched between Gloucestershire’s southern hills and the River Severn. Here, the M5 does an efficient job of...

Hello, and welcome to your latest issue of the “Friend”.

Am I making a broad statement when I say everybody loves music? Perhaps, but it can’t be too much of a leap. Music has the power to bring us together, to make us feel good and to provide a welcome distraction. This week, we have two music-related...

Gillian Harvey meets a man who has cycled to every English and Welsh lighthouse

TIMELESS, beautiful and with many a story to tell, it’s hard to look at a lighthouse and not feel a sense of awe. And it was this sense, on seeing the light of Dungeness Lighthouse shining over Romney Marsh, that first inspired the then eight-year-old...

Neil Mcallister enjoys the lovely Langdales in the Lake District

IT’S funny what you remember from childhood holidays. My memories of the first family camping trip are clear. I was used to the Cubs and Scouts, but the family buying a huge blue continental tent signalled a Lake District adventure. Our destination...

Black Butterfly

BLYTHE frowned at the bed, awash with a sea of dark clothes beside her suitcase. How could anyone own so many black dresses? It wasn’t her fault – clients had insisted, she thought, removing the hangers, folding and wrapping each one in tissue paper...

30-PAGE RELAXING MAGAZINE

1 1 AMAZING STORIES | NO.1 FOR FICTION

Willie Shand enjoys an autumnal visit to scenic Aberfeldy

WHEN General Wade built his military road between Crieff and Dalnacardoch, he faced quite a challenge crossing the River Tay at Aberfeldy. His near 400-feet-long, five-arch bridge still carries all today’s traffic safely across. The bridge was built...

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Only £4 for your first month when you subscribe* – Call 0800 318846, quote PFDML *Saving of 56% based on the newsstand price of £2.30 per issue. First month £4, then £7.50 a month thereafter by Direct Debit. Prices shown are based on UK delivery and...

Hello, and welcome to your latest issue of the “Friend”.

As always, this week’s magazine is packed with great reading. We have two brandnew serials starting. They are two very different stories, but they have one important thing in common – they are both brilliant tales. Don’t miss the opening chapters of...