Red Magazine

...I bought June’s edition of Red from W H Smith at a price of £2.80.

Within its 212 pages there were 92 pages of glossy advertising featuring virtually every brand of expensive cosmetics together with up-market cars, jewellery and clothes – some things obviously never change.

However, in the remaining pages there were some very interesting articles and features and whilst I can’t possibly mention them ...
.../> As with most magazines Red starts (on page 9 after a lot of adverts!) with the Editor’s Letter detailing the highlights to come. Two very comprehensive “Contents” pages follow, split into sections for “Brilliant Buys”, “Fashion”, “Features”, “Health & Beauty”, “Food”, “Home & Garden”, “Travel” and “Special Offers”. It all looked good ... more

When I was younger I loved women’s glossy magazines like She, Company and Cosmopolitan. They were all about how to get your man, what to do with him when you’d got him and how to make sure he never escaped your clutches. Fling in a few glossy pictures of expensive clothes, make up and jewellery and I was hooked.

Now that I’m (slightly!) older and (not much!) wiser I tend only to pick up magazines like these at the hairdressers or buy them for a long train journey or flight. It was for a three hour train journey to London recently that I bought June’s edition of Red from W H Smith at a price of £2.80.

Within its 212 pages there were 92 pages of glossy advertising featuring virtually every brand of expensive cosmetics together with up-market cars, jewellery and clothes – some things obviously never change.

However, in the remaining pages there were some very interesting articles and features and whilst I can’t possibly mention them all, the following outlines what Red has to offer.

As with most magazines Red starts (on page 9 after a lot of adverts!) with the Editor’s Letter detailing the highlights to come. Two very comprehensive “Contents” pages follow, split into sections for “Brilliant Buys”, “Fashion”, “Features”, “Health & Beauty”, “Food”, “Home & Garden”, “Travel” and “Special Offers”. It all looked good and sounded interesting – something for everyone.

A “List of Contributors” followed by a “Letters Page” and a lot more advertising space took me to page 23 and the first real article – “The Way We Are” a “comment” piece written by Katy Byrne. A further comment piece this time from a male perspective - “Male View – Confessions of a Chick TV Addict” - was one man’s story of abandoning pints down the pub for an evening with Ally, Carrie and Dr Greene. There was also an article on weddings from the groom’s point of view.

Interviews in this month’s edition featured American actress, Jodie Foster; Sara Payne, whose daughter, Sarah, was abducted and killed two years ago; and the singer Moby. All interviews were interesting, informative and well-illustrated with Sara Payne’s being particularly moving and inspiring.

Other features included articles on “Control Freakery”, the ubiquitous “Dating” – this time the choice between “Toy Boys” or “Older Men”(!), “Cosmetic Surgery” and an article entitled “The Day That Changed My Life” – a truly inspiring read about five women and how the course of their lives were changed completely by the events of one day. One women had developed breast cancer, another had won £125,000 on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”, one had been inspired by a life coaching course, another lost her husband in a car accident and the fifth met and fell in love with her childhood sweetheart after eleven years.

“Brilliant Buys” included dining room fashion – table linen, glass and chinaware and table decorations – and certainly had me thinking about turning my next dinner party into a much grander affair than just throwing pizza boxes and kitchen paper at people!

Being the holiday season there was a section on “Fab 50 – Gataway Goodies” – the sort of items that make you wonder how you have ever managed to get away on holiday without them. I particularly liked the idea of taking scented travel candles with me although I’d probably end up burning the hotel down!

Of course, fashion featured very heavily with suggested outfits for Summer Balls, Garden Parties and Weddings. Although most of the outfits shown had very scary prices - £195 for a pair of shoes, £280 for a dress etc, there were also some more realistic outfits from High Street stores for those of us whose life isn't such a social whirl this summer!

Nutrition also featured with an article “Is your diet as healthy as you think?” “Healthy” has never been a word which has featured often when I think about my diet so I just gave this a cursory glance – nevertheless it seemed to impart useful advice, even though we’ve probably read it all a thousand times before and the “5 Instant Ways to Improve Your Diet” were just common sense – have fruit for pudding instead of high-calorie desserts, eat steamed vegetables etc.

Book reviews, movie reviews, travel features and recipes followed along with an article on 24 hours in the life of Jo Malone – head of the international skincare and fragrance company.

The last few pages of the magazine were dedicated to one page “files” on health, beauty, fashion, food, home, garden and travel with snippets of information and glossy photographs about what is currently in fashion.

**Conclusion**

Not only does Red have all the looks of a typical glossy magazine, there is also some substance there too. The very varied articles were all well-researched, well-written and interesting and I found myself reading it from cover to cover. The magazine kept me occupied and intrigued for the whole train journey and when I got to Kings Cross I passed it on to another lady waiting in the queue to board the next train North. Hopefully she got as much pleasure out of it as I did and has passed it on to someone else.
 

...less