The latest issue of LeftLion 54 just happened to be our tenth anniversary issue and so we went to town as much as we could by interviewing as many ‘big names’ as possible. It’s a bit of a celebrity wank-off in some respects, but it was an occasion that needed to be marked. Cramming it all in meant we extended to 54 pages which is cause for celebration in itself. Although I think the front cover looks great there were many faces missing who have done a great job for the Lion over the years, notably designer Dave Blenkey, Nathan Miller and of course Al Needham.

From a literature perspective this included a double page feature on Ray Gosling and a gentle invitation to Councillor Jon Collins to give this incredible man the keys to Nottingham. It was great to be able to write a ‘proper’ informed article and goes to prove that there is space in LeftLion for serious articles (e.g. one’s you have to read rather than flick through). The Q&A format is great for publications read in pubs and cafes but people do take LeftLion home to read as well.

One recurring question I keep being asked is whether I like Ray Gosling. Of course I frigging do or else I wouldn’t have wasted three years of my life following him around. Good journalism is about telling the truth, showing all sides, it’s not about kissing arse. Ray has wild mood swings and there’s no point lying about this, though in hindsight I could have been more diplomatic about his hygiene. Either way it’s my best headline to date: RayG Against The Machine.

Dramatist Michael Eaton kindly allowed us to republish his Left/Right commission for the Nottingham Playhouse’s 50th birthday celebrations which features a dialogue between our favourite two lions. There was also a spot for Rhiannon Jenkins Tsang, author of The Woman Who Lost China, which takes us back to the beginning of the Maoist communist onslaught of 1949. This was an opportunity to get in a Smiths reference in the headline: ‘How Soon is Mao: There’s a republic if you’d like to go. You could meet 1.3 billion people who really love you.’ This is what LeftLion is really about, witty headlines, irreverent comments, not taking ourselves too seriously – everything our egocentric cover is not…

WriteLion featured a specially commissioned poem by MulletProofPoet, one from Rosie Garner who helped out LeftLion back in the day and a typical Lord Biro offering. In their differing ways they all capture the spirit of this factory town. We featured two self-published books, one by Jack Croxall and the other by an incredibly entertaining eccentric called Susan Beecroft. Our favourite adopted scouser Paula Rawsthorne and a short story collection from the Notts writing group took the other slots. We also found space for three poetry reviews: Helen Ivory, who helped adjudicate the Alan Sillitoe Poetry Competition, the Nottingham Lace Anthology which was published as part of the Festival of Words (and also includes short stories) and an offering from NTU graduate Daniel Campbell, because he sent the most entertaining accompanying letter I’ve read in eight years of slogging my guts out for nothing. Katie Half-Price got stuck into the latest pseudonym from JK Rowling and tried to figure out what exactly Bradley Manning has done wrong.

Al Needham finally got to interview Su Pollard and so can die a happy bunny. Al is an absolute genius and is one of my commissioned writers on Dawn of the Unread. I learned a lot from Al when he was LeftLion editor and he taught me the value of asking difficult questions. One question that was not asked of White Dolemite (our centrespread and the person who did the front cover) was about his grotesque sexual imagery. All The Girls Are Dead is a particularly brutal sexualised image that has already caused offence to a few people I’ve spoken to and we missed an opportunity to allow him to respond to these valid criticisms. Given the ridiculous rise of misogyny we’ve seen recently on Twitter or the backlash at women for daring to want Jane ‘Pounds and Prejudice’ Austin on a bank note (what do men want, Steve Austin?) publications like LeftLion need to be more responsible. So soz, for that.