As you will know, Mrs Lennier is not currenty available to edit this issue. As far as we are aware she has been kidnapped. I have spoken to the remaining Trustees who have resolved that I be entitled to edit this issue of the Harbinger on a temporary basis until Mrs Lennier is able to return.

The Harbinger offices have been torched and consequently we are having to put together this issue with the help of printers in Gloucester. I would like to thank Fiona Davies for helping me do this. We are doing what we think Fran would want us to do in her absence and are putting together the best edition for December which we can manage in teh short space of time available to us.

In addition to recounting recent events leading to our editor's absence, we have advice from Aunt Ali to a professional who wants to give up her career to join Jimmy Keegan in the States, the story of an earlier great fire in Tilebury, and some observations from the Reverend on her own recent experiences.

Overall, however, I sense when editing the Harbinger this month that we are under a shadow. Whether that shadow is cast by an executioner, a foeman or the ghost of father time I cannot yet say. However, without its energetic figurehead the Harbinger is under threat.

This may be the last ever issue of the Harbinger. Many of our columnists are leaving and many are asking whether arson and kidnap are too much of a symbol of the apparent division caused by previous editions to sustain the current format.

I have stepped forward to edit this issue because no-one else was able to do so and it is not right that Fran's newsletter dies simply because of her absence. We must not let a kidnapper win. However, I must ask myself whether it is right to continue to participate when matters settle down. Due to the strain I have suffered through this year in contributing and the confrontations which I have seen emerge in normal village life, I must say I doubt it.

I wish the Harbinger well (if it continues) and recommend that its next edition be refrshed with new contributors and a new direction. I commend this issue to you but I do so on the basis that the new direction which I hope to see next year will not include contributions to me.