DEFUNCT WOMEN'S MAGAZINES

[Alleycat321]

I love reading women's magazines, always have.

I've just been thinking of defunct women's magazines that I have enjoyed in the past, namely

Annabel (still have a free sewing kit that came with one issue)
Essentials
Family Circle
Living
She
Woman's Realm
Woman's World
Working Woman

Can anyone remember any that I may have missed?

I LOVED Misty comic, it was awesome, I still have the annuals in the loft...

I once saw an advertisement for She on the tube. Someone had altered She to Get down Shep.

This demonstrates the truth of Katharine Whitehorn's remark about women's magazines: 'Here, if anywhere, is a propaganda medium that would work'.

My mum used to read her mum's WW back in the 30s for those cryptic answers: 'I do not see how you can possibly be pregnant my dear, after the experiences you describe'.

My best friend and I used to buy Bliss and Sugar and then swap them over 🤣 we totally loved them

The first time I bought Just17, my mum selliptaped the problem pages together!

I adored Minx, what a brilliant magazine that was. I was gutted when it stop being produced.

i also was religious in buying Heat magazine. I would buy it on a Friday lunch time along with a chocolate bar from Spar and then sit with the pupils in my form class and tell them the weekly gossip!
(I was the form tutor- things were a little more relaxed in education in the early 2000’s!)

I would read my mum’s copies of Women and Woman’s Own from being about 8 years old. She would tell me off for leaving them in my room. 🤣

Agree they are ridiculously expensive but to be fair the December/Christmas edition was always mega (indulgent) and January always very slim (you're on a diet now!!)

I’ve found my people!

still love a magazine, took some getting used to but Readily app is brilliant, still prefer a new magazine but for value for money it’s great.

I used to love mizz, just 17 now it’s the lady and I love Stylist

Goodness yes, I had that vest for years, I had forgotten that's where it came from!

There was a women's erotic magazine pre-50 Shades of Grey called 'Scarlet' - I wrote my first published story for them, all about a woman who goes to the doctor and then has it off with the doctor (it wasn't a complicated plot). I remember the erotic fiction section of the magazine was called, hilariously, 'Cliterature'.

I'm blitzing (in a modest way!) Mumsnet today, and this seems like an appropriate thread to leave this in: The Lady is now also no more – along with The Ladygram, an acrostic puzzle that appeared in the mag for 45 years (and in some other mags before that). However… I'm offering a spiritual successor, called QuoteBox, at www.patreon.com/bertbakerpuzzles (I'm the guy who compiled "the 'Gram" for the last ten years!). There are some free samples on the site, and I hope people will check it out :) (There were plenty of fans of the LG – albeit not quite enough to keep the mag going any longer! – but it's proving hard to reach them…)

Fun fact - I went to dinner at the flat of the editor of Company to be interviewed (along with 3 others) about sex for a feature. Sadly no longer have the copy of the magazine but I have the letter thanking me for taking part 😊

J17 all the way ( came out on a Tuesday and cost 75p). It gave me a whole mound of really bad (and in one case, dangerous) beauty tips. Also introduced me to the idea of removing pubic hair which I was totally stunned by!

More was seen as really quite racy!

gran used to have Red Letter which was a magazine bit like People's Friend must been quite tame as gran would not accept any naughties
She was much better magazine than today quite sexy and racy do not think mum knew i read it when she was out!
its a shame so man have changed Prima early ones were fab
Freezer Digest was a must have for the new household acquired freezers
mum was quite strict so never knew i smuggled in the racy magazines True Confessions and similar!

I was working at one when it got the ax: Savvy. It was a really well-done magazine aimed at executive-type women. The company was bought out by another company and killed it off quite quickly.

Lear is another one that comes to mind. I didn't really pay attention to it, and it was only later, when Frances Lear died, that I discovered it was really admirable.

Dos McCall's still exist? My mother used to get that.

I loved Red Direct and still have some things from there (candlesticks, a bag, etc).

Over the years I used to read Vogue, Elle, Red, Marie Claire, She, Eve, Company, Real Simple, and Frank. There must be ones I’ve forgotten!

My grandmother used to work as a doctor’s receptionist and she would hoard all the old magazines, so I grew up reading through loads of back issues of Bella, Best, Women’s Own, Women and Home, Women’s Weekly and Reader’s Digest. I actually learned quite a lot about life from the agony columns and articles!

Loved the era of the magazine freebies — vests from Elle, tote bags, novels, flipflops, CDs.

I miss magazines, but I guess a lot of the function of them has gone to Instagram etc. It was so much nicer though to get a good magazine and really enjoy sitting down with it with a coffee or glass of wine; there isn’t anything quite like it nowadays.

Oh and I really loved Easy Living, and was gutted when it closed. I read it long after I’d stopped reading any of the others. It was fabulous when it started and had the kind of content that the others had ditched by then (though after a few years it started getting a bit too much about cosmetic surgery which was a bit irritating).

Getting the Christmas issues of magazines used to be so fantastic. I still sometimes buy the Good Housekeeping Christmas issue, but it’s like a caricature of itself these days. Either Nigella or Mary Berry on the cover, exactly the same as the last 15 years; and no content left apart from some recipes and whatever Sandi Toksvig can squeeze out as her Christmas musings. Possibly a few short paragraphs on what Joanna Lumley, Clare Balding, Kate Humble, Lucy Worsley and Emma Weymouth are doing for Christmas this year. If you’re lucky! The days of Christmas magazines that took days to read and enjoy are well and truly over! 😢

@BertBaker Thanks! I am really sorry that The Lady is no more. I read it a few times and actually really enjoyed it.

I remember 'Annabel' magazine,I loved it. When I was in my mid teens and off school with flu,I recall my DM buying me one. Such a pity it discontinued. I also loved Family Circle and Living. I generally don't bother with magazines nowadays. I used to get Woman and Woman's Own,also Bella and Best up until around 2005. But they started becoming more and more expensive and 'sensationalist',so I stopped buying them. Shame really,as I used to look forward to Tuesdays as 'magazine day'. The only magazines I read nowadays are the ones you get free with a newspaper.

I still have a kaftan type top, two sarongs and a comb which were magazine freebies around 20 years ago.

Brilliant thread!

As a tween, I loved Shout, Big, Look In, Top of the Pops.

As a teen I loved Sugar (over Bliss), More and Just 17.

In my 20s/ 30s, when travelling I bought Marie Claire and Grazia.

In my 40s, I like the odd Good Housekeeping. I always get the Xmas edition.

I don't buy magazines often because they're a bit expensive (same as some paperbacks) and full of ads, but I've got great memories. I can't bear to go digital.

There was one around only briefly in the late 90s that I loved called Minx and one edition had the free Minx vest that me and all of my indie friends loved 🤣

I bet your pupils will remember you forever. You sound ace

Does anyone else remember the recently discontinued Stella magazine in the telegraph. I hate the telegraphy but bought it just for that magazine

Hi all! Franki, exec producer and host of Mag Hags, here! I came upon this thread while researching an upcoming episode and imagine my surprise and delight to see the show namechecked!

Anyway, real reason I'm logging on is to see if anyone remembers Eve magazine from the 70s. The internet has almost NO mention of it. In fact Google's AI tells me categorically that it never existed. And yet, here I have a copy in my hands!

I've attached a pic of the cover and a few of the inside pages. I'd love to know if anyone remembers reading it and can tell me anything about the years it ran. It was published by Spotlight Publications who also published Over21 (as well as Kerrang! and Music Week) but other than that I'm struggling to find out much about it.

I know this is an old thread but maybe someone will pick it up. Fingers crossed!

8p! Omg faints