The Lady Magazine

7 August 2015

Dear Readers, After nearly five years here on Bedford Street and four years in the editor’s chair, it is time for me to say a very fond farewell. This week, I shall be closing the door of The Boudoir and descending the perilously steep staircase to the exit for the very last time. But I will be taking with me many happy memories, from the awards we have won during my editorship to the happy occasions when I have had the opportunity to rub shoulders with all of you. They have been fine times, indeed. But before I sign off to take up a new life as a paraglider, let me just say a resounding final thank you to you, the readers, the magazine’s tremendous staff and the doughty old dame of Bedford Street herself, who looks as radiant at 130 as she did when she first rolled off the printing presses in February 1885. I also send my warmest thanks and best wishes to Sam Taylor, who has been an excellent deputy and now becomes the magazine’s 11th editor. Long may The Lady prosper. Farewell, Matt Warren. Change for change’s sake is something we try our level best to avoid at The Lady. Yet when on occasion it is foisted upon us, needs must, as they say. I’m particularly sad that this issue will be Matt Warren’s final one. As you may well be aware, Matt came to The Lady from the Daily Mail during the tenure of Rachel Johnson, the previous editor; he brought editorial order to lively creative chaos. Since then, as editor, he has overseen a period of relative growth when all around us other magazines have seen their readership shrinking. I’m incredibly grateful to him for all his efforts over the past five years and we wish him well in his altogether less stressful new role: throwing himself off tall cliffs suspended only by the flimsiest of materials – a parasomething instructor. Over the past few years, Sam Taylor has been operating as an effective deputy to Matt whilst at the same time juggling an eye-watering number of other balls. Her ability both to commission and contribute articles of such breadth, interest and intelligence has impressed me immensely. It will come as no surprise, then, given my opening line, and having looked far and wide, that I have enormous pleasure in announcing her appointment as The Lady magazine’s 11th editor. All hail our new Ed. Ben Budworth, Publisher and Chief Executive