Many an evening in St Andrews was whiled away looking through my great granny’s Woman’s Weekly collection. I recall they used to have pages advertising salt and pepper wigs with names such as Rascal. My granny lived on a quiet housing estate, there wasn’t much going on, what can I say? You find your own entertainment.
Today Woman’s Weekly is 100 years old. The first issue was unleashed on an unsuspecting public on the 4th of November 1911 for 1d (one old penny). The magazine was the first to be written for the ordinary woman, not “women of Mayfair and the lady who lives in the castle”. This week IPC media reprinted this first issue in its entirety so we can see, over the past 100 years, how things have changed.
Today Woman’s Weekly is 100 years old. The first issue was unleashed on an unsuspecting public on the 4th of November 1911 for 1d (one old penny). The magazine was the first to be written for the ordinary woman, not “women of Mayfair and the lady who lives in the castle”. This week IPC media reprinted this first issue in its entirety so we can see, over the past 100 years, how things have changed.
So what kinds of articles were in the first edition?
Oh, articles with the opening line: “’I wouldn’t be as fat as so-and-so for the world!’ is a remark which may be heard now and again from the lips of some person rejoicing in the charms of grateful slenderness, perfect oval of face, a delicate and dainty chin and throat.” Quite. I’m a little fuzzy as to what grateful slenderness is; perhaps this is a 100 year old typo.
Sigh. Even the era said to admire a level of voluptuousness had diet tips for the “removal of over-fat”. The tip in this edition is a home treatment called Antipon, containing vegetable ingredients “of a quite harmless nature”. This, Woman’s Weekly reckoned, would help ladies to shed up to 3lb in 24 hours.
What’s on the cover of some recent Woman’s Weekly? “Lose inches off your waist”.
Congratulations Woman’s Weekly, I look forward to the knit your own diet issue.
Oh, articles with the opening line: “’I wouldn’t be as fat as so-and-so for the world!’ is a remark which may be heard now and again from the lips of some person rejoicing in the charms of grateful slenderness, perfect oval of face, a delicate and dainty chin and throat.” Quite. I’m a little fuzzy as to what grateful slenderness is; perhaps this is a 100 year old typo.
Sigh. Even the era said to admire a level of voluptuousness had diet tips for the “removal of over-fat”. The tip in this edition is a home treatment called Antipon, containing vegetable ingredients “of a quite harmless nature”. This, Woman’s Weekly reckoned, would help ladies to shed up to 3lb in 24 hours.
What’s on the cover of some recent Woman’s Weekly? “Lose inches off your waist”.
Congratulations Woman’s Weekly, I look forward to the knit your own diet issue.
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