Monday 28 October 2019

Shirley Blair is leaving The People's Friend

It's not happening yet, and somebody suitable will replace her and ... It's probably best if you read her blog, where Shirley explains that's she's leaving The People's Friend.

I've met Shirley and communicated with her via numerous emails and she's always been friendly and helpful. Many writing friends have said how nice she is and how she's encouraged them with their writing. She'll be greatly missed and a very hard act to follow.

(I'll have more to say later, once I've got over the surprise.)

21 comments:

Jackie Sayle said...

She will be missed. But good luck to her in her well-earned retirement.

Jackie Sayle said...

She will be missed. Much luck to her in her well-earned retirement.x

Bubble said...

OMG Noooo!

Anonymous said...

Good luck to her. Best thing I ever did, retiring. She'll be missed, but now she'll have time to write more stories.
Jacqui

yellow butterfly said...

I agree with Anonymous. I went to her serial writing course in London, and I bet she thought I've got some ideas! If only I had time to write! I thought she was really nice by the way, and am sorry she is leaving. I'm just about to have my first story published by TPF.

carrie said...

Really going to miss her, but wishing her a well-earned retirement which I'm sure she'll be looking forward to.

Anonymous said...

Quite shocked, Shirley's a great editor. She's been kind to me and offered lots of good advice on how to make a story work. Some of the feedback she's given me has enabled me to rework and sell a story to another market. I'm quite sad that she will no longer be there at the helm, but wish her all the very best of everything and much inspiration for her own writing. All good wishes, Shirley.

Kate Hogan

Anonymous said...

Quite shocked, Shirley's a great editor. She's been kind to me and offered lots of good advice on how to make a story work. Some of the feedback she's given me has enabled me to rework and sell a story to another market. I'm quite sad that she will no longer be there at the helm, but wish her all the very best of everything and much inspiration for her own writing. All good wishes, Shirley.

Kate Hogan

ados123 said...

Wishing Shirley all the best for her retirement and sincerely hoping that nothing changes at TPF for us writers! I love writing for them.
Alyson

Helen Yendall said...

Shirley has never been anything but interested, professional, good-humoured and kind. We will miss her but I'm sure she's looking forward to an exciting retirement and more time for herself. I wish her all the best! Helen Yendall

Anonymous said...

Shirley will be much missed both by readers and writers - her impeccable judgement was key to ensuring that only the best of our work made it onto the page. I wish her a lot of fun in retirement, with big plans and nice surprises. Eirin Thompson

Geraldine Ryan said...

Wow! What a brilliant post she's written. I've never subbed to PF but all I can say is lucky lucky writers who have worked with Shirley.

Penny A said...

Thank you for the news, Patsy!
And of course many thanks to Shirley Blair, too. Wishing her all the best in her retirement, with no more than one Christmas a year to look forward to!

Anonymous said...

I always thought Shirley WAS The People's Friend.

On the same topic, does anybody have any idea what's happening at My Weekly. There's another ad for a commissioning editor here - https://careers.dcthomson.co.uk/vacancies/commissioning-editor-fiction/?fbclid=IwAR0d2elBBEmycxGND7Hl39Kr-AwCMdUApXlfPEvUq1rupJW84nsFywjMPLE

Patsy said...

@ Everyone – I share your surprise that Shirley is going and praise for her hard work, support and friendliness. I'm sure a suitable replacement will be found, but that won't stop us missing Shirley.

@ Anonymous (the most recent one). This is less of a surprise to me, and I can guess what's going on – but rather than speculate I'll wait until I know before posting anything.

Rosemary Gemmell said...

Aw, the end of another era - Shirley is lovely and so helpful to writers. However, she deserves her retirement and I'm sure someone will be waiting in the wings to take over! I remember being shocked some years ago when Liz Burn left My Weekly as she was another lovely editor who was like part of the furniture.

Carolb said...

A well-deserved retirement after doing such a demanding job for so long.

Shirley said...

Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for your kind and generous comments. It's this that I'm going to miss most - the camaraderie and, yes, in many cases friendship that we've shared, as well as the professional aspects of the job. But you can bet your boots that in the coming weeks I'll do my best to find you a new Fiction Ed Whoever who will do such a stellar job that in a few months you'll be going, Shirley Who? Thanks again.

Anonymous said...

Shame both jobs are based in Scotland. I know an excellent fiction mag editor in London.

Janice Sadler said...

I think it's fantastic that both the jobs are based in a place other than London. Perhaps that's the reason why DCThomson magazines are so different from all the others.

Liz said...

I've been thrilled to have Shirley accept my first two People's Friend stories over the past week. So I shall miss her too, even though I'm a newbie!

It must be a super-busy job, though - she deserves her retirement.