The First "Mitre"
It is now forty years since the Mitre Magazine first saw the light of day and I have the honour of being its earliest reader who is still surviving.
The Mitre was the brainchild of Roger Pott. At the beginning of the Easter Term in 1961 he summoned Stephen Barker and myself to the staff room and told us of his idea.
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Michael '1958' |
Michael '2000' |
Stephen was to be the editor as he enjoyed writing short stories (usually about the Nazi party and illustrated with his own excellent drawings) and I was to be sub-editor as "you are going to be a bookseller so you had better get some experience in producing a book.” We had no choice we had to do it! Like all magazine editors we had problems getting articles. (nothing changes ..Ed.) Stephen and I went round different people begging them to write almost anything.
Somehow we did get more than enough articles and the setting up of the first edition began.
As anyone who has seen a copy of the first edition can see, Stephen and I did make some mistakes, the most obvious being the spelling of my name! We visited the printers to see how they set up the lead type and received the first proofs in mid May.
Although we had the proofs we were not to show them to anyone and we were sworn to secrecy. We were not even to tell the article writers that they had been included.
At half term each pupil was handed a copy of the magazine and told to take it home to their parents. Stephen and I hoped that parents would not be alarmed with what they read! We need not have worried, a few days after the half term break we were summoned to the staff room where we were told by Roger Pott that he had received congratulations from parents who hoped that this edition would not be the last. It wasn't. Long may The Mitre continue and I would like to record my own thanks to Roger Pott and Stephen Barker for an excellent introduction to a life of bookselling!
Michael Catterick
Sub-Editor Mitre No 1
