The Lady Magazine

Heavens. Now here is a sentence I could once never have imagined typing: I am about to subscribe to The Lady magazine.
Yes really. The Lady, once the doyenne of matronly ladies in twinset and tweed, is now quite the most perfect weekly magazine for Vintage Housekeepers everywhere and since it’s re-birth  in the capable hands of Rachel Johnson, my Tuesday mornings have been transformed by an eager race around to my local Post Office to grab one of only two copies of  The Lady they stock there before the two old ladies who are apparently it’s only readers in the locality make it up the hill on their walking sticks and take a whack at my head. And yes my Darlings, I do know how very, very mean that sounds, but unless you too have been utterly charmed by the magazines transformation too, I’m not sure you could begin to understand how utterly scrumptious it has become and indeed what a very necessary addition it is to Tuesday morning elevenses of Lapsang  and Ladies Fingers…
Which is why, you see, I have no choice but to subscribe: because old ladies across the land are up in arms (UP IN ARM’S I TELL YOU!) about what Rachel Johnson has done to THEIR magazine (regardless of the fact that the magazine in it’s former incarnation was dying on it’s feet after a run of more than 125 years), and I do so not want to go on increasing their angst by reducing it’s availability on a weekly basis locally and thus will instead rely on Postman Steven to deliver it to me before my tea is thoroughly stewed. (Though let it be known Ms Johnson, that The Lady is almost impossible to get around here: the local branches of W.H.Smith and various supermarkets do not stock it, and when I do happen across it elsewhere it is usually hidden, in short supply, somewhat shamefully, amongst the lowliest of weekly rags, and so that it’s previous audience seem willing to do to go to war  with us unwelcome interlopers doesn’t surprise me in the least- not only do the new host of articles very occasionally reference the dreaded SEX word and  feature profiles of abhorrences like Tracey Emin,  but now they have to do battle to procure such filth in the first place!
Why am I raving about The Lady in such a delirious fashion?  Wasn’t it once stuffed full of fuddy duddy nonsense and many an advert for Housekeepers and Au pairs? Yes indeed. it certainly was, and while the small ad’s still exist, this Journal For Gentlewomen now features an array of well written profiles of  modern luminaries like Cath Kidston, Dita Von Teese and Johnnie Boden, quirky columns and diaries, an alternative medicine column I anticipate weekly, covers of vintage copies of The Lady from the archives that make my heart sing,  a terribly old fashioned and really rather fabulous letters page, a mildly political edge missing in most women’s magazines, and all in all, a view of the world sharply angled towards the interests of modern Vintage Housekeepers just like ourselves. Trust me: it is a joy. And one available world-wide by subscription so even those in far-flung corners of the universe can enjoy a little of what it is to be a twenty first century Gentlewoman…
So let’s extend our congratulations to Rachel Johnson: The  Lady is a triumph and all credit to the tough skin she has demonstrated in the face of both adversity and many an old stick in the mud…
Now then, anyone willing and able to sort out The People’s Friend??
Oooh and P.S: Heads up! This weeks copy of The Lady features Christine Strutt of Cabbage and Roses fame…