Do you remember when GN had guests?

Wow! Wish I'd been around then!

I won 40 books and I was given the chance, plus some dosh, to stay locally in an upmarket care home for two days. The food was excellent and affordable, and my two rooms would have had one hour of free cleaning each week. I could have moved in, but over £6K a month was marginally beyond my means. I had to write a review.

I won a large pile of adult Ladybird books plus some other random novels at different times.

I won some books and best of all six months of the most beautiful flower delivery from a company called Bloomon.

I too won prizes a Bluetooth dvd player, hair products and several books those indeed were the days.

Yes I remember those days, I was lucky enough to receive some fantastic prizes including a large box of children’s’ books which have been enjoyed by all of my grandchildren.

Happy days.

I won a king size duvet, £300 worth of curtains, Sanctuary skincare, signed books etc.

We had some interesting guests including Anne Widdicombe, Jules Hudson, Alan Titchmarsh and Des O’Connor - my favourite because he was genuinely funny.

Those were the days!

Gransnet received some cash grants in the early days (I don't know where from) to help them set up various things. I know they got one to pay for the first year or so of the local websites. Maybe those grants funded the guests and the giveaways.

They also got more of a share of advertisers - this was before the internet was awash with sites where advertisers could place ads - so their income was more than it is in these days of every Tom Dick and Harriet monetising their site or Facebook page with ads through influencers' blogs or Google Ads. Companies would give freebies in the hope that people would remember their names after seeing the handouts.

I won a coffee table book on fashion

won

Yes I remember kitty. I win a prize or two although I can't remember what they were. I mentioned on here recently that I wondered what happened to the 'blogs'.