During its heyday,Jackie magazines agony aunt received sacks of letters approximately lovebites and loneliness, best friends and boyfriends. As Jackie the Musical heads on tour, or the genuine Cathy and Claire reveals allAt the start of the 1980s,long before the internet and social media, I was Google for thousands of preadolescent girls in the UK. I’d receive sackloads of letters – up to 500 each week – asking for advice on everything from love bites to loneliness. I received scabs stuck to pieces of Sellotape, or urine samples in Charlie perfume bottles.
The reason for this unusual bounty? I was an agony aunt. Well,I was two agony aunts: Cathy and Claire for Jackie magazine. Yes, the shock news is that they weren’t genuine and they were one person. The letters were initially sent to a Fleet Street office, and mainly to give the illusion of a hip,chilly London base. Then they made their way in overnight lorries to the magazine’s actual home in Dundee. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com