As for knitting and baking, it is actually rarely cheaper to make something from scratch now, especially in the style recommended in magazines. I think it is for people who want to feel part of getting back to basics and responding to the recession, but aren’t really short of cash.

I actually once had a job interview at The Lady. The editor was very ladylike and as you would hope, but I can confirm they would not stretch to a gentlewoman’s salary.
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Personally I find it a tad boring. All magazines have that effect on me though!! I prefer to read something with rather more substance.
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Take it from me there are plenty of perversions in the subtext. lol.

I’d also like to add my Mum reads the Chat, Have a break , Hello, OK and horrifically, is a ‘Twilight ‘ fan.

Dark underbelly and all that…………………………
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That´s me out then.
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LONDON – A dusty grande dame of British publishing is getting a makeover.

The Lady magazine, founded in 1885 as a "journal for gentlewomen," is famous for recipes, rules of etiquette and classified ads seeking cooks, butlers and nannies. On Tuesday, it marched into the 21st century with a glossy new issue featuring adventure-travel tips, full-color advertising and even — whisper it — a Web site.

"Where we were seen as irrelevant and eccentric, we want to be seen as charming and amusing."

Its offices, in an imposing pastel-painted building in Covent Garden, are a London landmark.

The past issues displayed in the building’s window indicate The Lady’s problem. There’s not much difference visually between a 1939 issue featuring a model in quilted chintz negligee and a black-and-white 1978 edition promising stories about "a prettier you" and "Charles Darwin." No connection between the two was apparent.

Adrian Monck, head of the journalism program at London’s City University, says The Lady is "a charming reminder of another age.""It’s a miracle it’s still with us," he said.

Although The Lady has survived, it has not thrived in recent years. The magazine’s circulation is about 30,000, less than half its peak. Budworth thinks he can double that within a year, despite the economic crisis."There is huge untapped potential in The Lady," said Budworth, 44.

He may have a point. Women over 45 — Budworth’s target audience — are a huge emerging market, and traditional activities from baking to knitting are seeing a resurgence thanks to a credit crunch fueled back-to-basics mood.

"It’s very fashionable now to be an English lady — clever, witty, confident of your own style, family-based," said Sarah Kennedy, a veteran of glossy women’s magazines including Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan who has been brought in as The Lady’s editor-at-large. "These women are becoming more visible, commercially and financially.

"They’re not interested in (reality show) ‘Big Brother.’ They’re not interested in celebrity culture. They’re confident enough to say, ‘I like gardening. I like walking holidays — but I still want to look like Sharon Stone.’"

Anxious to capture this audience — settled, well-off, interested in travel, gardening and books — Budworth commissioned The Lady’s first-ever market research. He found to his alarm that the magazine’s average reader was 78 years old.

"I think we were in danger of becoming irrelevant and only appealing to 80-year-olds," he said. "Dearly as we love them, you have to bring in new readers."

Some things, though, will not change. Budworth vows The Lady will not stoop to "celebrity, sex and tittle-tattle."

"I would never use sex to sell the magazine," he said. "The Lady is greater and grander than that."
Edit: Ah Helen..you are always a true lady!

Edit: And you Frank, sound suspiciously like a lady i know & like!
: )