Woman's Weekly (UK)

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Isn’t there something captivating about old churches? When you enter, often through a creaking, heavy door many centuries old, the latch of which echoes around the space within as it lifts, you’re aware you are walking in the footsteps of people from...

Bagging a bargain

I suppose my mum’s generation of women was the first who were easily able to work while also running a home and raising a family. Of course, women on the breadline had been doing that for hundreds of years, but out of necessity rather than choice....

Jam today… and tomorrow

Unlike the king in AA Milne’s poem, who only wanted butter for the royal slice of bread, I’m very keen on marmalade – it’s long been my favourite preserve. But for a few years now, my daughter has been making her own unique recipe jam, using a mixture...

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We were a tad busy with little children in the mid-90s, which might excuse my missing one of the most unexpected musical successes of that time. In an episode of the BBC series Soldier Soldier, two of the cast had to sing the song Unchained Melody. It...

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When my parents passed away, I discovered a lot of old photographs they’d kept, many of which I perhaps saw when they were originally taken, but had long since forgotten. Don’t you find that memories in your own head are so vivid that in many ways they...

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A year to remember Can you name the best year of your life? It’s difficult, isn’t it? Because most lives have many highs of different sorts as we travel through time, but sadly, often some lows too, which are perhaps easier to pinpoint. Speaking...

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When I was young, I sang in the school choir, and every Christmas we performed a classic service of Nine Lessons and Carols. I always enjoyed it hugely, apart from some deep envy when my friend was chosen to sing the solo beginning of Once in Royal...

BAKING A CHRISTMAS CAKE FOR 600

‘I’d never made anything so enormous!’

Create a Christmas CUSHION

FLORAL PATTERN TO CROCHET BEAUTIFU SNOWFLAKE TO EMBROIDER

Made with love

REINDEER TO CRAFT ✶ SWEATER TO KNIT ✶ POODLE TO SEW ✶ PATCHWORK STOCKIN S TO STITCH

How to help DELAY DEMENTIA

What we all NEED TO KNOW

Michaela Strachan

I must say, I have found it quite di cult thinking ‘I’m a grandma’!

Davina Mccall

Singing helped me recover after my brain op

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She who would valiant be I suppose the Middle Ages were the golden time for Christian pilgrimages. Many beautiful churches were built on the profits from the trade, and donations from the devout, across Europe on routes to St James’ shrine at...

I cried constantly while we were filming the last Gavin and Stacey!

Delicious FRUITY BAKES

EASY NO BAKE PUDS you’ll love

Gareth Malone

My kids are probably bored of me singing, but I can’t not do it!

The ring of silver

Ageing is a funny thing. Some embrace it and some fight against it. I’m reminded of Lady Bracknell’s comment: ‘Thirty-five is a very attractive age. London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained...

Hello! Nodding off

When I was a child, I slept like, well the proverbial baby. My father could be drilling, sanding and decorating outside my bedroom door and I wouldn’t wake. It was only when I became a parent that everything changed. Due to some resolved health issues,...

Here to help

I’m hiding my money Q I have a real fear of running out of money. I was brought up in a very poor household. We sometimes went hungry because there was no food, but there was an abundance of love, so I’m not complaining. I have a reasonably good job,...

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Perfect in pies In the tiny garden of my parents’ first home was a plum tree. The first year they were there, it was covered with the most delicious fruit, and once all the family and friends had worked their way through the lot in pies, crumbles and...

Apart or together?

Sadly, we live in an age that seems to encourage factionalism – identifying ourselves as part of a sub-group, based on our religion, sexuality, skin colour, perceived class or financial situation. But can splitting us all into separate sub-groups...

Woolly thinking

In the Middle Ages, the British Isles got rich from wool. It was always a pre-eminently wonderful material from which to make clothing, and many grand, medieval churches still survive, built on the back of profits made in the trade and the cloth woven...

Growing memories

The first garden I had as a child featured a row of brambles along the back fence. They were the earliest plants I remember and I loved their blackberries – my mum made a mean blackberry and apple pie, although at the time, I was convinced it would be...

Slowly and lovely

When I left school for the last time, some friends and I hired a narrowboat and went exploring Britain’s canals, while waiting for our exam results. The sun shone as we passed ducks and ducklings, mysterious mammals peering out from reedy banks and...

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We’ve been married for more years than I care to remember – suffice to say that two of our children are now into their 30s, so I’ll be revealing no more – and one of the things that makes me smile about being in a long-term relationship is the little...

Angela Rippon

They said I’d had my day at 50 but I’ve had the time of my life since then!

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The dear, green place We went to a friend’s wedding in the Highlands of Scotland a few years ago that was delightfully Brigadoon. The men all wore kilts, which I found surprisingly comfortable, and there was ceilidh dancing into the wee small hours...

Perfect PICNIC RECIPES

Intercity sightseeing

My wife Claire and I have very different approaches to train travel. Living as we do, a long way from London, we often find ourselves going up to the capital on a long-distance service because our children live there, but whereas Claire likes nothing...

Past and future fun

When I left college, in those sunny, faroff days when being online just meant hanging on the phone, I worked for a while doing 12-hour shifts at the old Colman’s factory in Norwich to earn some much-needed money. I used it to go travelling, through...

Julia Bradbury

My cancer helped me make positive changes in my life

Canada by the sea

Our daughter, as part of her college course, had a year at a Canadian university. We went out to drop her off, then saw Toronto and Niagara Falls. We flew back in May to pick her up, and headed east to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island (because both...

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I’m reading a lovely book at the moment called Of Thorn & Briar by Paul Lamb, a hedge-layer from the West Country. Because he spends all day in the open air, he is in tune with the countryside in the way most of us have lost. Back in the day, anyone in...

It’s good to talk

My mum was a big fan of BBC Radio 4 (although it was still called the Home Service when she was young), so I grew up with talking radio always on in the background. As is so often the case, what is normal for your parents then becomes normal for you,...

Loved, and pre-loved

I think I’ve mentioned before that I have a simple ring on my finger which belonged to my father, and before him, my grandfather. We still use an old silver teapot that was a much-loved possession of my mother’s, and she originally bought many of our...

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We like a roast in our family; wherever people are, they always seem to turn up while those special cooking aromas are wafting through the house. And roast potatoes, in particular, never seem quite as good in restaurants as the ones you make at home....

WIN

One lucky reader will win a four-night midweek stay for four in Devon. You’ll stay in a luxury cottage with a hot tub, plus the prize includes a delicious meal, an afternoon tea, an e-bike experience and indoor pool passes. Cofton Holidays is a luxury...

Barbara Flynn

Celebrate yourself! There’s no point in trying to be like anyone else

Put your FEET UP

Easy options It can be a delicate balance to get the garden you love without it becoming a chore to keep looking good. Yet there are ways to keep maintenance to the minimum. We’re talking about choosing high-performance plants that flourish with...

Did you know?

It’s encouraging that ‘kindness’ was the 2024 Children’s Word of the Year. Publisher OUP surveyed 6,000 children, and over 60% chose it as their top word, suggesting an appreciation of tolerance and the importance of mental health. ‘AI’ was also...

Banish NO-FUSS FIXES TO BACK PAIN AND HOW TO STOP IT RETURNING

MOTHER knew best

Classic beauty products YOU’LL LOVE!

CLASSIC COUNTRY LOOK REFRESH

Traces of the past

It’s extraordinary how much the British landscape, which feels very much as if it’s fashioned by nature, is in reality largely created by us – the small ancient fields of the west of England, the sinuous stone walls that frame the Yorkshire Dales, or...

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Weekend treats Who doesn’t love a relaxing weekend? Surprisingly, it’s quite a modern phenomenon. In Christian societies, Sunday has always been a day of rest and worship. But for farming communities, such as those that surround me, there’s always...

FOR A HEALTHIER HEART

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Owls on the prowl It was when our now thirtysomething son was just a baby that I was invited on an all-night wildlife expedition to Dartmoor. We decided that such an adventure was probably a little premature for such a youngster, so my wife and baby...

BEST BEAUTY BUYS from the supermarket!

Tea and cakes

When we were children, we used to go to my grandma’s after school every Friday for a treat. Looking back, it was probably more to give our mother and father a temporary, child-free treat instead. I say we went to Grandma’s – my grandad was there too...

Melt-inthe-mouth CHOCOLATE PUDS

Brilliant beauty stockin fillers

The advent of change

I love Advent, the period from the fourth Sunday before Christmas until Christmas Eve. In the old days, it was a time of fasting, restraint and expectant waiting before a celebration of the Nativity on Christmas Day, which started 12 days of...

MARVELLOUS MAINS for festive entertaining

Bells are jingling…

Welcome to our bumper issue – it’s not only got everything you need to create a magical Christmas, it is also packed with great entertainment and fun, so we hope you enjoy it. This is such a lovely time of the year and everyone at Woman’s Weekly gets...

Découpage a TREASURE CHEST

With a pinch of salt...

As the world changes, lifestyles that seemed everyday to one generation all of a sudden become historical curiosities to the next. My children can remember life before the internet and it first appearing in our home. But no doubt many years down the...

Wooden performance

I’ve often wondered why dogs, who are frequently quite nervous of loud noises, for example, seem completely unafraid of the dark, whereas even adult humans can be secretly scared outside at night. We’re lucky enough to live alongside a wood, and our...

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Best of British We British can sometimes be far too self-deprecating. For example, our food is some of the best in the world, with extraordinary regional dishes, exceptional ingredients and some of the finest restaurants, but very few Brits would...

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The Wight stuff These days, newlyweds often seem to have hugely glamorous and exotic honeymoons (perhaps after an equally glamorous and expensive wedding, which may even have followed no-expensespared hen and stag dos). My parents, in contrast, after...

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Fermenting success

Long, long ago, before the time of recorded history, when I was a child, the idea of British wine was something of a joke. This was a land of beer, elderflower cordial and lemon barley water, with maybe something a little stronger north of the border...

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French fancy I think it’s fair to say that the British have a mixed relationship with the French in the way that two competitive siblings sometimes do; as our closest neighbours that’s not surprising. In fact for hundreds of years we were regularly at...