About Mary Glasgow

Who are Mary Glasgow Magazines?

Mary Glasgow Magazines are a specialist language publisher based in central London. Mary Glasgow Magazines’ team of dedicated writers, editors and designers publish magazines, books, audio and a website aimed at secondary school students learning languages.

Why is the company called Mary Glasgow?

Mary Glasgow is the name of a teacher. On January 1st 1957, she established the publishing company now known as Mary Glasgow Magazines.

Why did Mary publish magazines?

Mary started her career as a French teacher in the 1950s, and subsequently became a school inspector. Frustrated by the lack of enthusiasm shown by teenage pupils, and by what she felt was the limited appeal of the French textbooks, Mary decided to publish her own series of French magazines. The magazines covered all the subjects that her teenage students loved – music, sport, film at a language level that they were comfortable with.

How has the company grown and changed?

Mary Glasgow Magazines were an instant success, and the company went on to develop the current range of 16 magazines – for learners of English, French, German, and Spanish. During her magazine career, Mary and an American colleague, M.R.Robinson, shared many ideas on the value of magazines written and designed for teenage students. Mr. Robinson had launched his company, Scholastic, in 1920 with the publication of a magazine for students. Mary Glasgow Magazines is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Scholastic Inc, which has continued to publish magazines but has grown to be the largest publisher and distributor of children’s books in the world. Mary Glasgow Magazines also publishes a series of Readers and Resource Books for teachers of English as a foreign language and in Spanish.

What happened to Mary?

Mary Glasgow retired in the 1970s, having purchased a small château in France, and having qualified as a pilot so that she could fly herself there and back from England! She was honoured with the Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite by Charles de Gaulle. Mary passed away in 1983 but her spirit and passion for language-learning lives on in the team today.