Parish of Mickleham
Sue Tatham's first 20 years on the Parish Magazine

from the September 2004 magazine
Twenty Years On
While she is celebrating the birth of her grandson Freddie, Sue Tatham can also be extremely proud of the twentieth birthday this year of another of her offspring. Mickleham Parish Magazine has been published in its present form since October 1984, for all that time under her editorship. It is almost impossible to do justice to her exceptional contribution to the life of the parish; we have sought tributes from just a small cross section of those who have been involved in the production of the magazine over those years:

Of course, we cannot know the truth of this sentiment in the case of Sue Tatham, as she is properly secretive about what, if anything, she has rejected - and in any case which contributor would admit to ‘chaff’? As editor of the best parish magazine in Surrey, Sue has been persuasive, seductive, imperial in eliciting contributions – potential reporters have come to know that charming yet steely, quite irresistible smile. And how attractively their pieces are presented; grammatically and syntactically corrected and often beautifully illustrated. Where do all those splendid pictures come from? John Wesley told a young editor: ‘Publish your message in the open face of the sun, and do all the good you can’. Sue has done just that.
Ken Kilburn

I first heard of Sue Tatham’s plans to have a different parish magazine when I asked her after church one day if she would like to come on the PCC. Her reply was that she was hoping to become editor of the magazine and to change the format and would not have time do both, particularly as she was still working. She certainly changed it and it has become a very interesting, informative monthly magazine - how did the church and the parish manage before? When the magazine is printed commercially my group will really miss our evening collating which, although it was hard work running round the tables, was a fun social event.
Rose Spence

20 years? You get less for murder! The magazine is very definitely Sue’s creation, organised with the zeal one expects from a native of the land of Billy Graham. In my naïveté I was coerced 20 years ago into one of the teams set up by Sue to ‘put together’ or collate the monthly magazine. Many and varied have been the inducements to team members. Some leaders provide food – 3 courses in one case, alcohol in most, although the production process tends to slow down after the third bottle. Methods vary; some teams prefer the tread mill method with everyone tramping round the table picking up pages. With 500 copies of 30 pages vertigo and dizziness set in early. On the other hand if you stay in the same place with the same pages the boredom is great and soon you can recite them.

Contributions are welcome but not always published! Shrewd retired ‘city’ gents ask to read the proofs before print, very wise as ‘pieces’ are invariably heavily edited (as I expect this one will be because, I’m told, the copy won’t fit the format). Some contributions are lost forever.

It is a splendid effort by Sue and the ‘volunteers’, pressed men all. The magazine has won a Diocesan award, though it’s not too holy. So through blood, sweat and hiccups the coagulation goes on. Long may it do so.
Mo Chisman
(as the editor is away, Mo has got away almost unedited this month, bless her, though we were not at all sure what she meant by ‘coagulation’!)

I well remember the launch of the magazine 20 years ago in the Chapel of Ease; imbibing champagne (anonymously donated) in such surroundings seemed deliciously naughty. But there were no crashes of thunder and fury from the heavens, so it must have been all right! And all right it has been ever since, under Sue’s discerning, creative wings. I was one of the original deliverers and still have my attractive round – Chapel Lane West. It’s a great way to see neighbours.

The first time Sue asked me to write something, I was daunted. Who would want to read anything I wrote? The fulfilment it gave me when I saw it in print was astonishing. The biggest assignment Sue gave me was in 1994 when she wanted to commemorate the 50th anniversary of ‘D’ Day. That involved my having to ask people where they were on that momentous day. What started out as a fearful challenge, ended up giving me a great sense of privilege as stories unfolded from people I had known for a long time, unaware of their amazing wartime experiences.

I value the magazine as a very worthwhile community asset – both in bringing people together to produce and distribute, and as a means of communication. When I get it, I like to save it until I can read it from cover to cover, uninterrupted, so I keep it to read in bed on Sunday mornings. Long may our magazine continue, but it only will if we have people willing to put in as much as they take out. So, when you’re asked to write something, reward Sue with a willing smile! She can wheedle out abilities you don’t know you possess, a wonderful art in itself … and your reward will be great satisfaction.
Liz Weller

It is amazing to think that the parish magazine in its present form has been with us now for 20 years. I cannot recall what came before - if anything - but I do remember the impression that the new magazine made. Here was an unstuffy, modern layout with an appeal to everyone in the parish from its stylish cover to interesting and entertaining articles.

This new magazine was the brainchild of just one person - Sue Tatham, to whom we are all profoundly grateful. It is her vision, imagination and hours of hard work that have achieved the production of a community newsletter for ten issues a year. What a daunting task! Over this time the magazine has won Diocesan awards and has been much praised and admired by many people. We are very fortunate indeed in Mickleham and Westhumble.
Jean Speirs

As Sue indicated in the July/August magazine [see below] we are to go over to commercial printing; this will start next month. Many thanks to all those who have printed and collated for all this time. Deliverers, you still have a job to do and will receive your magazines as usual. Copy deadlines will be a little earlier as the printer sets us a tighter schedule – for details see Calendar

from the July/Aug magazine
There are changes ahead … This issue completes Mickleham Parish Magazine’s 20th year in its community magazine form and amazingly quite a few of those who met in the Westhumble Chapel one evening in September 1984 to collate and staple the first issue are still involved in its production and circulation. Time does not allow me to calculate how many reams of paper have been printed, carried about, sorted, stapled, counted out and delivered, but everyone agrees it is time for a change.

Because our advertising revenue has grown over the years, we now feel that, with this and our usual donations from readers, we can afford to have the printing done professionally. We are looking at quotes and hope to have everything in place to start with the new format in the autumn. In order to keep costs down we will be condensing the contents somewhat, but plan to include a wide range of features and news as before. We hope the new printing process will allow us to use photographs as well, which should make the magazine even more interesting. Initially the layout may vary a bit as we get to grips with the changes. Watch this space!
Sue Tatham

from the October 2004 magazine
The New Look Magazine This is the month of changes, with new regimes at St Michael’s Church and Juniper Hall Field Centre and a new look parish magazine. As promised we have started using a professional printer and hope that the outcome will meet with approval. For the past 20 years we have used a succession of Juniper Hall’s duplicators and copy printers to produce the magazines, and we are most grateful to John and Anne Bebbington for allowing us to use their facilities. In fact, originally it was Anne (sometimes with John’s assistance) who cut the stencils and ran off all the copies each month until their ancient and often temperamental duplicator was replaced by new technology. Anne then trained a team of volunteers who took over the printing. Despite the new machine, the task took a good six hours, and even longer when gremlins got into the works. Many thanks to everyone who helped with the printing over the years. None of them has complained about becoming redundant.

Of course the production line did not stop with the printing; the pages had to be collated and stapled. Here again we used teams who took it in turns to put the magazines together, and although this was a social occasion with wine and sometimes supper provided, it was still a tedious task. Many thanks to all the team leaders who organised the collating and those who helped.

Finally, I must thank everyone for their kind words which appeared in last month’s edition – I certainly could not have done it without everyone’s help and support, especially that of Stephanie Randall and Charlotte Daruwalla, and of course, Ben. (Although there were times when we might have made legal history with a parish magazine being cited as corespondent in a divorce case!)
Sue Tatham