Editorial

"It is with some trepidation" would be an appropriate phrase with which to start this, my first Ipswich Society Newsletter Editorial. Then something along the lines of "a hard act to follow" applied to my distinguished predecessor, Neil Salmon, who edited (wrote articles, took photographs and a lot more besides) "more issues than you could shake a stick at". Indeed he established the present look and feel of the Newsletter: its classic masthead bearing the Bernard Reynolds Society emblem, the Times New Roman text, its frequent use of photographs and its welcoming "user friendly" layout.

This makes no mention of the quality of the Newsletter's contents over the many years during which Neil has "been at the helm". In preparing to "get match fit" for this task, I am struck by the various and always positive reactions to the Newsletter which I hear from readers - both members and non-members. Everyone seems to look forward to the package dropping onto their door mat: some make a point of reading it in one sitting, others read it when they have a spare moment; many, I suspect, keep all their back issues and from time to time look up something which they recall reading. I certainly fall into this last category.

If you think that this opening paragraph is a ham-fisted way of using a bunch of cliches without appearing to, then "Guilty as charged".

Robin Gaylard

(N.B. Grateful thanks to all the contributors to this issue.)

Neil Salmon presented with a Painting by Brian Jepson by Mayor Mary Blake