I have suddenly realised that it was almost five years ago that Priory Press came into existance, initially to publish my own books, after my first publisher had curled up it's toes and the second had been about as much use as a chocolate teapot.

Five years on and I have around 25 writers currently beavering away in garrets writing short, medium and fairly long manuscripts and have almost without noticing become the dreaded 'publisher' myself. A process which gets really bizarre when trying to sort out my own occasional forays into literature. I've gone on my first book tour, 1,800 miles in a red nissan micra called Mr Bumble. Given various talks on how to write creatively and the pitfalls of publishing, the bullet points of which I'll eventually stick on the News page. Found myself on local radio assisting in the hosting of a new book programme with Bob Harrison and Chris Ewan, details of which will also appear shortly on the News page.

This coming year we have a new anthology of fiction to be published by Christmas and next year we hope to have five new titles up and ready for the small publishers fair in November. It is, despite the recession, a time of change and one change for me is that Priory will no longer publish any of my new books, after all you can't be the poacher and the gamekeeper at the same time. Apart from which I would hate to give the impression that we are nothing more nor less than a vanity press.