150 years of The People’s Friend

The People's Friend is a British weekly magazine founded in 1869 and currently published by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd. Its tagline is "The famous story magazine".^[2]

The magazine is principally aimed at older women and is broadly traditionalist in outlook. Each issue contains at least seven self-contained short stories and two serials (frequently more), a craft project (usually knitting or sewing) and various factual articles, one of which is a piece on a particular town. Pets, family and traditions are also common themes.

The magazine holds an annual craft competition called "The Love Darg" (a Scots term for a day's work done without asking payment) in which readers are asked to make toys and garments suitable for children. After judging, the entries are distributed to children's charities.

The magazine's geographical location in Dundee is reflected in a general bias toward Scottish subjects. The main front cover image is invariably a painting of a picturesque location somewhere in Britain or Ireland, and readers can also buy prints of these pictures. The paintings are made by a variety of artists but are credited to the collective pseudonym J. Campbell Kerr, which is also used for the "Round Britain" feature within the magazine.