National Trust Magazine
Encyclopedia
National Trust Magazine is the members’ publication of National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty
. With a readership of 3.76 million (ABC 1,752,636) it currently has the sixth highest magazine circulation in Britain
. Three issues are sent out every year - spring, summer and autumn – and are delivered as part of the National Trust members’ mailout, which includes local newsletters and other information for Trust members.
, on the cover. It was 8 pages long and titled ‘The National Trust Bulletin’.
Over time the magazine has been variously known as,
The number of issues has varied from 1 to 4 per year, although since 1984 the magazine has been tri-annual.
The most recent magazine, autumn 2009, is issue number 118. The current numbering system considers issue number 1 to be the spring 1968 issue (numbered as such due to a redesign in that year). In fact 50 issues preceded the spring 1968 edition; therefore the autumn 2009 magazine is the 168th National Trust Members’ publication.
The team has variously included Executive Editors, News Editors, Deputy Editors, Art Directors over the years.
Currently the magazine employs three full-time editorial staff: the Editor, Assistant Editor and Editorial Assistant. It also employs a freelance designer, sub-editor and picture editor.
Regular pages
Opinion
Penned by notable figures in British society. Previous contributors have included Anish Kapoor, Rachel Johnson, Griff Rhys Jones and Satish Kumar.
Interview
An interview with recognisable faces. Previous interviewees have included Brian May, Kevin McCloud, Tony Robinson, Bill Bryson, and Dame Kelly Holmes.
Walk
A walk around an area linked to a feature in that issue of the Magazine.
Behind the Scenes
News from the world of the Trust's interiors and collections.
People
An interview with a National Trust staff member or volunteer. Previous interviewees have included a stonemason, a coachwoman, and a National Trust Surfing Officer.
Photo Essay
A picture-led feature on any subject, from photographic archives to a celebration of the International Year of Biodiversity.
Days Away
A travel feature, aimed to inspire a trip or holiday to any UK location with ties to the Trust.
Snap Shot
A page celebrating one of our reader-submitted examples of time well spent at National Trust Sites.
, and regularly features the voices of Malcolm Billings, Louise Fryer
, Brian Perkins
, Libby Purves
, and Charlotte Green
. In addition to features, which are read aloud, extra studio interviews and outside broadcasts are conducted with authors, Trust staff, and figures mentioned in the magazine.
More recent contributors include
National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty
The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
. With a readership of 3.76 million (ABC 1,752,636) it currently has the sixth highest magazine circulation in Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. Three issues are sent out every year - spring, summer and autumn – and are delivered as part of the National Trust members’ mailout, which includes local newsletters and other information for Trust members.
History
The first issue appeared in May 1932 and featured the Trust’s newest acquisition, Montacute HouseMontacute House
Montacute House is a late Elizabethan country house situated in the South Somerset village of Montacute. This house is a textbook example of English architecture during a period that was moving from the medieval Gothic to the Renaissance Classical; this has resulted in Montacute being regarded as...
, on the cover. It was 8 pages long and titled ‘The National Trust Bulletin’.
Over time the magazine has been variously known as,
- 1932–1935: The National Trust Bulletin
- 1935–1939: National Trust News
- 1939: The Trust in War-Time
- 1947: National Trust Newsletter (the first Trust publication since 1939 due to wartime paper shortages)
- 1948: National Trust News Bulletin
- 1948–1954: News Bulletin
- 1955–1967: News Letter
- 1968–1970: Newsletter to members of The National Trust
- 1971–1973: National Trust News
- 1973–1985: National Trust
- 1985–Present: The National Trust Magazine
The number of issues has varied from 1 to 4 per year, although since 1984 the magazine has been tri-annual.
The most recent magazine, autumn 2009, is issue number 118. The current numbering system considers issue number 1 to be the spring 1968 issue (numbered as such due to a redesign in that year). In fact 50 issues preceded the spring 1968 edition; therefore the autumn 2009 magazine is the 168th National Trust Members’ publication.
Staff
Previous editors include- Robin Wright: 1982 -1985
- Lawrence Rich: 1985 - 1988
- Sarah Jane Forder: 1989–1996
- Amanda Evans: ‘acting editor’ autumn 1996
- Gina Guarnieri: 1997–1999
- Anne Johnson: autumn 1999
- Gaynor Aaltonen: 2000 - 2006
- Sue Herdman: 2006–present
The team has variously included Executive Editors, News Editors, Deputy Editors, Art Directors over the years.
Currently the magazine employs three full-time editorial staff: the Editor, Assistant Editor and Editorial Assistant. It also employs a freelance designer, sub-editor and picture editor.
Content
The magazine features articles on interiors, gardens, wildlife, family, food, environment and all areas of National Trust life.Regular pages
Opinion
Penned by notable figures in British society. Previous contributors have included Anish Kapoor, Rachel Johnson, Griff Rhys Jones and Satish Kumar.
Interview
An interview with recognisable faces. Previous interviewees have included Brian May, Kevin McCloud, Tony Robinson, Bill Bryson, and Dame Kelly Holmes.
Walk
A walk around an area linked to a feature in that issue of the Magazine.
Behind the Scenes
News from the world of the Trust's interiors and collections.
People
An interview with a National Trust staff member or volunteer. Previous interviewees have included a stonemason, a coachwoman, and a National Trust Surfing Officer.
Photo Essay
A picture-led feature on any subject, from photographic archives to a celebration of the International Year of Biodiversity.
Days Away
A travel feature, aimed to inspire a trip or holiday to any UK location with ties to the Trust.
Snap Shot
A page celebrating one of our reader-submitted examples of time well spent at National Trust Sites.
In the news
The National Trust Magazine has sparked features in broadsheets, such as the Telegraph (on the story of Ferguson’s Gang), and the Sunday Times (following a feature on Slavery).Advertising
The very first advert to appear in the magazine was in the 1968 issue. Madison Bell handle the advertising for the magazine today.Online
The magazine team also regularly use twitter under the username @NTMagazineTalking Magazine
An audio version of each issue is produced. The talking magazine is presented by John WaiteJohn Waite
John Charles Waite is an English rock singer and musician. He was lead vocalist for The Babys and Bad English. As a solo artist, he scored several international hits, including 1984's "Missing You", a top ten hit on the US Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart, reaching #1 in the...
, and regularly features the voices of Malcolm Billings, Louise Fryer
Louise Fryer
Louise Fryer is a British broadcaster on BBC Radio 3.After attending Clare College, Cambridge, where she read anthropology, Fryer briefly worked as an actress. She is a regular presenter of Afternoon on 3 and announcer on concert broadcasts...
, Brian Perkins
Brian Perkins
Brian Perkins is a senior newsreader on BBC Radio 4.All of Perkins' relatives are New Zealanders, although they refer to England as home...
, Libby Purves
Libby Purves
Libby Purves OBE is a British radio presenter, journalist and author. A diplomat's daughter, she was educated at convent schools in Israel, Bangkok, South Africa and France, and then Beechwood Sacred Heart School in Tunbridge Wells.Purves won a scholarship to St Anne's College, Oxford, where she...
, and Charlotte Green
Charlotte Green
Charlotte Green is a British radio continuity announcer and news reader for BBC Radio 4. Since 1998 she has specialised in news reading, including reading the news on Radio 4 flagship Today, and reading news items on The News Quiz...
. In addition to features, which are read aloud, extra studio interviews and outside broadcasts are conducted with authors, Trust staff, and figures mentioned in the magazine.
Contributors
Notable contributors to the magazine have included:- Anthony BluntAnthony BluntAnthony Frederick Blunt , was a British art historian who was exposed as a Soviet spy late in his life.Blunt was Professor of the History of Art at the University of London, director of the Courtauld Institute of Art, Surveyor of the King's Pictures and London...
- James Lees-MilneJames Lees-MilneJames Lees-Milne was an English writer and expert on country houses. He was an architectural historian, novelist, and a biographer. He is also remembered as a diarist.-Biography:...
- Alan TitchmarshAlan TitchmarshAlan Fred Titchmarsh, MBE DL is an English gardener, broadcaster and novelist. After working as a professional gardener and a garden journalist, he established himself as a media personality through appearances on gardening programmes...
- Clough Williams-EllisClough Williams-EllisSir Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis, CBE, MC was an English-born Welsh architect known chiefly as creator of the Italianate village of Portmeirion in North Wales.-Origins, education and early career:...
- George Trevelyan
- Graham Stuart ThomasGraham Stuart ThomasGraham Stuart Thomas OBE , was an English horticulturalist, artist, author, poet and garden designer.He was born in Cambridge and studied in the University Botanic Garden at Cambridge University...
- Peter ThorntonPeter ThorntonPeter Kai Thornton CBE was a museum curator and writer. He was keeper of furniture and woodwork at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London between 1966 to 1984, and curator to Sir John Soane's Museum, in Lincoln's Inn Fields between 1984 and 1995...
- Nigel NicolsonNigel NicolsonNigel Nicolson OBE was a British writer, publisher and politician.-Biography:Nicolson was the son of the writers Sir Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West; he had a brother Ben, later an art historian...
- Robert Lassam
- Sir Alan BownessAlan BownessSir Alan Bowness CBE is a British art historian and museum director.Between 1980 and 1988, Bowness was Director of the Tate Gallery, realising the long desired expansion of the site at Millbank with the creation of the Clore Wing dedicated to the work of J.M.W. Turner...
CBE - David BellamyDavid BellamyDavid James Bellamy OBE is a British author, broadcaster, environmental campaigner and botanist. He has lived in County Durham since 1960.-Career:...
- Nicholas Wollaston
- Hunter DaviesHunter DaviesEdward Hunter Davies is a prolific British author, journalist and broadcaster, perhaps best known for writing the only authorised biography of The Beatles.- Early life :...
- Sue ArnoldSue ArnoldSue Arnold is a British journalist, who writes or has written for both The Observer and The Guardian.Since losing her sight as a result of a medical condition her writing has often been related to radio criticism and reviewing of audio books. Her mother was Burmese and her father British and she...
- Jancis RobinsonJancis RobinsonJancis Mary Robinson OBE, MW is a British wine critic, journalist and editor of wine literature. She currently writes a weekly column for the Financial Times, and writes for her website jancisrobinson.com...
- Gervase Jackson-StopsGervase Jackson-StopsGervase Frank Ashworth Jackson-Stops OBE was an architectural historian and journalist. He died of an AIDS-related illness.-Education:...
- Anna Pavord
- Miles KingtonMiles KingtonMiles Beresford Kington was a British journalist, musician and broadcaster.-Early life :...
- Libby PurvesLibby PurvesLibby Purves OBE is a British radio presenter, journalist and author. A diplomat's daughter, she was educated at convent schools in Israel, Bangkok, South Africa and France, and then Beechwood Sacred Heart School in Tunbridge Wells.Purves won a scholarship to St Anne's College, Oxford, where she...
- Jonathon PorrittJonathon PorrittJonathon Espie Porritt, CBE, is an English environmentalist and writer. Porritt appears frequently in the media, writing in magazines, newspapers and books, and appearing on radio and television regularly.-Early life and family background:...
- Rumer GoddenRumer GoddenMargaret Rumer Godden OBE was an English author of over 60 fiction and nonfiction books written under the name of Rumer Godden. A few of her works were co-written by her sister, Jon Godden, who wrote several novels on her own...
- Max Egremont
- Roy LancasterRoy LancasterRoy Lancaster, OBE is a British gardener and broadcaster.Charles Roy Lancaster was born in Farnworth, Bolton, Lancashire and best known for his work on the long running BBC TV programme, Gardeners' World...
- Brian RedheadBrian RedheadBrian Leonard Redhead was a British author, journalist and broadcaster. He was probably best known as a co-presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 which he worked on from 1975 until 1993, shortly before his death...
- Richard MabeyRichard MabeyRichard Mabey is a naturalist and author.He has been called by The Times 'Britain's greatest living nature writer'. Among his acclaimed publications are Food for Free, The Unofficial Countryside and The Common Ground, as well as his study of the nightingale, Whistling in the Dark...
- Maev KennedyMaev KennedyMaev Kennedy is a staff news writer for The Guardian and writes regularly for the Museums Journal. At the Guardian she has edited the diary column and also been the arts and heritage correspondent, and also writes on archaeology....
- Simon JenkinsSimon JenkinsSir Simon David Jenkins is a British newspaper columnist and author, and since November 2008 has been chairman of the National Trust. He currently writes columns for both The Guardian and London's Evening Standard, and was previously a commentator for The Times, which he edited from 1990 to 1992...
- Patrick Wright
- Colin Luckhurst
More recent contributors include
- Dan CruickshankDan CruickshankDan Cruickshank is an art historian and BBC television presenter.-Early life:As a young child he lived for some years in Poland...
- Kate Colquhoun
- Anthony Lambert
- Marcel TherouxMarcel TherouxMarcel Raymond Theroux is a British novelist and broadcaster. He wrote The Stranger in The Earth and The Confessions of Mycroft Holmes: a paper chase for which he won the Somerset Maugham Award in 2002. His third novel, A Blow to the Heart, was published by Faber in 2006. His fourth, Far North was...
- John Vidal
- Clement FreudClement FreudSir Clement Raphael Freud was an English broadcaster, writer, politician and chef.-Early life:Freud was born in Berlin, the son of Jewish parents Ernst Ludwig Freud and Lucie née Brasch. He was the grandson of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and the brother of artist Lucian Freud...
- Rosie BoycottRosie BoycottRosel Marie Boycott , better known as Rosie Boycott, is a British journalist and feminist.-Journalism career:Daughter of Major Charles Boycott and Betty Boycott née Le Sueur, Rosel Boycott was born in St Helier, Jersey and was educated at the independent Cheltenham Ladies' College and read...
- Jonathan MeadesJonathan MeadesJonathan Turner Meades is a British writer on food, architecture, and culture, as well as an author and broadcaster. He is an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association.-Education:Meades was born in Salisbury Wiltshire, and...
- Rachel JohnsonRachel JohnsonRachel Johnson is an English editor, journalist and author based in London.Johnson is the daughter of former Conservative MEP Stanley Johnson and artist Charlotte Johnson Wahl , the daughter of Sir James Fawcett, a prominent barrister and president of the European Commission of Human Rights...
- Adam Nicholson
- Oz ClarkeOz ClarkeRobert "Oz" Clarke is a British wine writer, television presenter and broadcaster.-Biography:Clarke’s parents were a chest physician and a nursing sister. He was brought up near Canterbury with a brother and a sister. Clarke became a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral and subsequently won a choral...
- Michael HolroydMichael HolroydSir Michael De Courcy Fraser Holroyd, FRHS, FRSL is an English biographer.-Life:Holroyd was born in London and educated at Eton College, though he has often claimed Maidenhead Public Library as his alma mater....
- Anish KapoorAnish KapoorAnish Kapoor CBE RA is a British sculptor of Indian birth. Born in Mumbai , Kapoor has lived and worked in London since the early 1970s when he moved to study art, first at the Hornsey College of Art and later at the Chelsea School of Art and Design.He represented Britain in the XLIV Venice...