Surrey Life Editor's Blog

Wedding bells...

Well, the July issue of Surrey Life went off to the printers without any major hitches, which is always a relief, and I’m really pleased with this issue.

One of the highlights is an interview with business tycoon David Gold, the chairman of Birmingham FC, who kindly invited us to visit him at his beautiful Caterham home. I can’t remember the last time I found myself interviewing someone quite so charming or, indeed, so forthright. He had some interesting things to say about hit TV show The Apprentice (anyone else suffering withdrawal symptoms, by the way?) and talked to us about everything from his enormous affection for Surrey to his hopes of one day buying a football club in the county. Perhaps we could yet see him going head to head with Roman Abramovich at Chelsea...

Elsewhere in the mag, we catch up with Anthea Turner, who reveals all her favourite places to eat, drink and shop in Surrey, and find out what the highlights will be of this year’s Hampton Court Flower Show. We also pay a visit to Banstead boutique One One Seven to see how they’re faring since their dramatic make-over on BBC Two’s Mary, Queen of Shops.

In other news, it’s been an exciting few days for the team at Surrey Life. One of our top sales people (and all-round good bloke) Damien St George tied the knot with his fiancée Nicky at the weekend. The pair got married at the beautiful Highley Manor in Balcombe, situated deep in the Sussex countryside, and a great time was had by all. They did have to contend with a few showers (but then they picked the same weekend as Glastonbury – enough said…) but the sun came out later and everyone had a wonderful time. We wish them all the very best …

On the subject of bad weather, can’t believe it’s raining again. PR guru Max Clifford, who will be our main interview for the August issue, is doing a photo shoot for us today at his home in Walton on Thames. I was really hoping to get some nice pictures of him relaxing in the garden but looks like we’ll have to do a ‘Hello’ style shoot in his lounge... I’ll let you know what photographer Andy comes back with later in the week.

The dawn of a new online era

Welcome to the first entry of my new blog where I’ll be revealing all the things that go on behind the scenes at Surrey Life.

Regular readers of the magazine will already be aware of some of the crazy things that happen here – from exploding water coolers to people locked in toilets to altercations with seagulls. Well, mark my words, that’s just the tip of the iceberg…

Seriously, though, I’m really looking forward to giving you what will hopefully be an interesting insight into how a magazine runs – from how we plan the issue to who we decide to include and what ends up on the front cover.

We have a fantastic team of people here at Surrey Life and I’ll also be telling you a bit about them too – because, believe me, there are some real characters…

Perhaps most importantly, though, this blog will be an opportunity for you to tell me what you think of the magazine.

Is there something you think we should be covering that we’re not? Perhaps there’s a wonderful place in Surrey that you’d like to learn more about? Whatever it is, good or bad, post a comment and let us know.

I’ll endeavour to make the blog as informative as possible and will aim to update it a couple of times a week, so do visit again soon.

In the meantime, better get back to the mag… We go to press on Tuesday for our July issue so it’s always a bit frought at this time of the month, with last minute queries to resolve, pages to sign off and covers to finalise.

I’ll get back to you later in the week and let you know how it all went…