Wendy Clarke: “I Couldn’t Have Found A Better Home For My Stories”


As part of our 150th celebrations, we asked our writers to let us know what the “Friend” means to them. Here, Wendy Clarke shares her thoughts:

“In August 2012, I received an e-mail from one of the team at ‘The People’s Friend’. He liked a story I’d sent into the magazine but wondered if I could change it a little and re-submit. This was an exciting development as, prior to this, I’d only received standard rejections.

“In a blog post I wrote around this time, I put: ‘I have become very stubborn about this magazine and have made it my mission to have a story accepted.’

“That stubbornness paid off and the story I resubmitted became my first ever magazine sale. Not only that but the person who wrote that encouraging letter, Alan Spink, has been my editor ever since. I couldn’t have found a better home for my stories.”

Read more about our 150th Anniversary.

Yvonne McKenzie

Yvonne works on the Features team and admits to being nosy, so loves looking after the Between Friends letters and finding out all about our lovely readers. She also looks after our health copy and enjoys writing about inspiring people that help make the articles in the magazine so interesting.