Good bye and thank you - editorial

WE DO not normally make our farewells public, but this is a very special case. After years of remarkable service, during which liver, waist line and viewing sensibilities have all been put on the line for the reader, Lucy Mallows is moving on to pastures new.


WE DO not normally make our farewells public, but this is a very special case.


After years of remarkable service, during which liver, waist line and viewing sensibilities have all been put on the line for the reader, Lucy Mallows is moving on to pastures new.


Lucy has had a terrible cross to bear, for the danger in writing about things you love is that, after a while, the job takes over.


The unusual becomes the mundane and what you once really enjoyed is now a source of daily irritation.


On top of that, Lucy put herself far more in the public eye than most of our staff because Style,


the section she edited for us, is largely review based.


News writing is comparatively easy. You report the facts and while some people will criticize your style of writing or your lack of grammar, they are more likely to write in response to the issue


than to you.


But restaurant and movie critics (and Lucy was both, among many other things) lay their personal


opinions on the page. And that, apparently, makes them fair game for all sorts of personal attacks. People seemed either to love Lucy, or to loath her.


She was not always our Style Editor. Her contributions with the paper go back until 1993, the year The Budapest Sun was founded.


An early incarnation found her working the Parliamentary beat, where she recalled how surprising it was that many MPs, even though they spent all day talking or arguing with each other, wanted someone to listen to them.


And now she is off to try her hand as editor of Where Budapest. It has truly been a privilege working with her, and we wish her well.


Her pontoon-sized shoes will be filled by Eszter Balázs who has previously worked for us as both


an assistant to Lucy and as a news reporter.


Maybe we should be wishing her good luck too!




04.09.2003