The Billet Article - Editorial

This article is taken from The Billet Issue - 431 - Feb 2008, Authored by Keith Pickles

Editorial

When I took over this role at the AGM in February 1988 I never thought that I would still be doing it 20 years later. The previous magazine had gone under the name The Mirage, and was edited by James Heginbotham; who took it on in 1987 after Paul Hallas had carried out the task for one year. However, I believe that James could not find the time to prepare a magazine each month, and Lorna took it on. Unfortunately the magazine only appeared spasmodically. There was a 6 page issue in February 1988 (of which I wrote 3 pages). But the one before that was August 1987 – an 8 page issue of which I wrote 2 pages. So perhaps my taking over was not too much of a surprise.

There were 16 pages to the first issue (no 212). All of which had to be typed up apart from the front page and Melvyn’s Library Shelf, which he sent ready produced. Melvyn has always been at the forefront of new technology and at this point I would like to pay tribute to regular contributors who have provided me with material over the years, starting with the afore-mentioned, Melvyn. He has always managed to find something to say over the years – don’t I know it! Always someone to rely on to turn out interesting pieces for the magazine. Other regulars over the years have included Bob Eaton – who carried on for many years writing his Presidential page long after he was the President! – Paul Sunderland (an irregular contributor but a useful page filler from time to time); Arthur Russell (who gave me his reflections for several years); Peter Wright in his role as Librarian; and not surprisingly Stevie B (who first appeared as a committee member in 1992) and who has turned out his pages every month ever since.

As Editor, I have produced a lot of the pages myself. Either written or copied form other sources, largely newspapers. In December 1996 I noticed that I had produced 21 of the 36 pages. In more recent years, thanks to contributions from my regular outside providers – mainly Ian Adair, Mark Leveridge, Peter Duffie, Ken de Courcy and my Indian pen friend with whom I have exchanged letters as well as him providing a trick each month – Arun Bonerjee – the number of pages I have provided myself has decreased, although I have still supplied quite a few pages in most editions. I would also like to pay tribute to Walter De Ruyter, who has provided me with many articles he has published in The Magi, and who is still going strong editing two magazines.

The first ever Bradford Magic Circle magazine was produced by Joan Woolhouse, the daughter of Vincent & Elsie Shackleton and the sister of Godfrey Shackleton. It was a one page affair, dated 15th October 1966, giving information on what was happening in the Circle typed and duplicated on, I would imagine, a Gestnetner machine. For those of you not old enough to remember these machines, the typist had to type on a sheet which cut the letters through it. The sheet was attached to the machine and the operator turned a handle and the paper was printed as it was drawn through the machine. The ink tended to get all over the place and if the typist typed something wrong they had to fill the whole in using something like tip-ex. No wonder people didn’t keep copies of everything. It was a mammoth task. So how Joan did it I don’t know, but I have to take my hat off to her and thank her for getting the magazine started. I tried to reproduce it here, but because of the size of paper used, when I tried to get it down to this size the quality is poor, so I have photocopied several copies. Please take one if you are interested.

Issue No 2 is missing along with about 3 other magazines. At one time I listed all the missing numbers and I obtained a few from some of the older members. I would think that it is very unlikely that any of the missing numbers still exist.

Finally I would like to say that I have enjoyed the many hours I have spent putting the Billet together over the years and to thank Pam for all her help with the momentous task of collating and stapling; and to wish the new Editor, Jon Harris, all the best and thank him for taking this job on. As I have said to him, if he needs any advice I am here, but I shall leave him to it.

And finally, finally, can I thank all those people who I have not named, but have, over the years helped by producing reports, sending in articles and generally supporting me.

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