Surrey Life Editor's Blog

Ladies who lunch (occasionally)

I had the privilege of attending a fantastic charity lunch yesterday at Nutfield Priory, a spectacular 19th century mansion in Nutfield, near Redhill, with breathtaking views across the Surrey countryside.

Contrary to popular belief, I rarely manage to be a 'lady who lunches', as I have too many responsibilities here in the office, but this time I made a special exception...

This particular lunch was taking place in aid of the Rainbow Trust in Leatherhead - an amazing charity that provides support to the families of children with a life threatening or terminal illness - and so I really wanted to make the effort to go.

I'm so glad I did - it was fascinating to learn more about their incredible work - and I thoroughly enjoyed the talk by their patron, TV and radio presenter Sue Cook, on her extraordinary career in broadcasting.

The lovely mushroom risotto also made a welcome change to my usual daily fare of a cheese and avocado wrap!

All credit to organiser Wendy White, a real tour de force on the Surrey charity scene, who gives up her time to put on these lunches several times a year, raising thousands of pounds for the county's most deserving causes.

We'll be publishing all the pictures from the event in the September issue of the magazine.

 

 

 

Post mortem update

As predicted, Friday's meeting turned out to be a fairly lively affair.

Every time we have one of these planning and review meetings, there's always something that gets everyone going, and this time it was whether features should start on left or right hand pages.

For some reason, and I'm not even entirely sure why, my instinct is always to start the main features in the magazine on a right hand page. However, our group editor Jon is of the opposite opionion and thinks features should open on a double page spread. The other people around the table had varying opinions on the subject, which made for quite an interesting debate! 

In the end, we decided on a compromise... From now on, we will start the big, picture led features on a spread, so we can use the photos to their best effect, but the others we will start on a right hand page.

I'd be very interested to hear what anyone else thinks??

Aside from that little debate, the meeting went fairly smoothly and everyone seemed pleased with the latest mag, which means I live to fight another day! 

  

    

 

 

Moment of truth

I'm off to our planning and review meeting this afternoon down at our Worthing office.

In a nutshell, this is basically a post mortem of the magazine that's just come out in the shops - how we could have done things better/differently etc - followed by a brainstorming session on the next two issues.

This is the only time of the month when all the key people on the magazine get together at the same time, and while the title of the meeting might sound a bit dull, it is usually a pretty lively affair and a really useful exercise.

For one thing, there's nothing like going through the magazine with the group editor, art director and sales director to make you focus your thoughts, and, crucially, it also forces you to take a step back from the magazine and look at it through the eyes of a reader - rather than as an editor.

In terms of the planning side of the meeting, that's an opportunity for us to look at the next couple of issues and decide how we can best design the features and what we might want to put on the covers.

Incidentally, we are always delighted to hear from you, our readers, with your views on the magazine, so if there are any things you particularly like, or you think there's something we could be doing better, then do post a comment.    

 

 

Good samaritans

Last night, I spent the evening with the Leatherhead & Mid-Surrey Samaritans – not because I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown over cover shots, but because they very kindly invited me to their awards ceremony at Denbies in Dorking.

This was the first time they have held their Awards for Outstanding Contributions to our Local Communities, and what a humbling experience it was.

The categories ranged from Young Person of the Year to the Good Neighbour Award to Citizen of The Year, and their stories were so extraordinary that by the end of the evening there was barely a dry eye in the house.

We’ll be revealing details of all the winners in our next issue, along with pictures of them all receiving their awards, and their respective stories.

Technical troubles

I know computers are very important and everything but sometimes I wish that we could revert to typewriters or even pen and paper.

Our server is down this evening, while some essential maintenance work is carried out, meaning that I can’t get into any of the features.

Oh well, I thought to myself, I’ll sort out the inbox of my e-mail, which frankly has got a bit out of control over the past few days - but oh no, it seems that is connected to said server as well, meaning I can’t move files or delete anything.

All in all, it’s very frustrating as I need to get at least two big features over to our production people down in Worthing by the morning.

At this rate, I’m going to have to end up taking them there myself…     

 

Here we go again...

Firstly, many apologies for the lack of entries over the last few days… The final week before we go to press is always a bit crazy and this time was worse than usual.

Apart from the ongoing dramas over the covers (which eventually resulted in a compromise with the powers that be!), we also had various unexpected problems to contend with – an extra picture having to be included in the Concorde feature, a typo in a headline only spotted at the eleventh hour and, not least, the sudden realisation that I had forgotten to include the name of Max Clifford’s dog in his interview, having given my word that I would do so (it‘s Ollie, by the way, if anyone is interested).

Thankfully, it’s all wrapped up now though, and I think it will actually turn out to be one of our best issues to date. This edition is a rather special one, actually, because we ended up getting a world exclusive on a new development in the plans to get Concorde flying again. I won’t say too much at the moment, otherwise it’ll be all over the Internet before the mag even hits the shops next Wednesday, but it all sounds very exciting!

Then, of course, there’s the aforementioned interview with PR legend Max Clifford who lives in Walton-on-Thames. He was such a good sport when we met him and duly gave us the complete low-down on all his favourite places in the county, which makes for some very interesting reading!

Anyway, I should probably get on... No sooner do you get one magazine done than you’re onto the next one, and as the September issue looks set to be one of our biggest issues to date, I better get cracking.  

Currying favour

Well, we got a glimmer of sunshine and that was about it, but thankfully photographer Pete managed to take advantage of the small window of opportunity and got a couple of potential cover shots for us.  

After all that, though, we might actually do something rather different with this month’s cover that would be a complete departure from the norm – it all depends on whether I can convince the powers that be that it’s a good idea – we’ll see. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

It’s a week today until we go to press so this is the point when things start to get a tad hectic. The last week is always a bit crazy – last minute queries to resolve, legals to check, proofs to sign off etc, etc – but it’s an exciting time too as the magazine really starts to take shape…

At this stage in the production cycle, it’s all too easy to virtually move into the office. Whilst the long hours are pretty much a given during the final week, I’m determined to make sure I have at least one evening to myself, otherwise you end up getting so tired that you can’t see the wood for the trees.

With that in mind, I have arranged to have a take-away curry tonight with a friend (I've recently discovered the joys of Kashmiri and am now totally obsessed) so absolutely have to be out of here today at a reasonably decent time.       

Praying for summer...

It’s such a relief to finally see some sunshine this morning – though judging by the past few days I bet you anything it’ll be raining again by this afternoon – or thundering & lightning - or hail-stoning…

Aside from the frustration that we share with everyone else about the weather, it’s problematic for another reason too. Worryingly, I still need a front cover shot for our South London edition of the mag, and with the cloud already drawing in as I look out the window now, I can see that it’s unlikely to happen today.

Finding cover shots is probably one of the most challenging aspects of my job. Not only does the picture need to relate to one of the features in the mag, ideally it should also be of an iconic building in the county – something that will really strike a chord with people when they see the magazine at the newsagents. It also needs to leap out at them from the stand (so grey cloudy skies and torrential rain are not really an option) and then there also has to be enough space to fit the cover lines in too.

Even after finding a picture that meets all those criteria, then our designer, art director, group editor and production editor all have to like it too… If they don’t, and I can’t convince them that they’re obviously wrong, we have to start all over again.

The final deadline for this month’s covers is a week today so, like everyone else, I’m just praying for some long overdue summer sunshine and gorgeous blue skies...  

Flying away...

As I feared, the photo shoot with Max Clifford didn’t go quite according to plan. Due to the on-going showers, we had to move the whole thing indoors.

Still, photographer Andy managed to get some superb shots of him relaxing at his home in Walton-on-Thames – and even his little dog got in on the act. We’ll be publishing the resulting pictures in our August issue, where he’ll also be revealing all his favourite places to eat, shop and relax in the county.

Meanwhile, back at the office, things are ticking along okay. We go to press again two weeks today, so by this time in the month the features are really start taking shape, which is always the most exciting part.

I’m particularly looking forward to seeing how our senior designer, Donna, tackles a feature we are running about a bunch of ex-British Airways pilots who are determined to see Concorde fly again as a private enterprise. It’s a cracking story for us, as they’re based in Surrey, and I’m sure Donna will come up with a suitably brilliant design…