It’s one year on…

Last year this time, we were walking on hot coals – or at least that’s how it felt. We were busy with the very first issue of Platteland, after many, many months of cajoling and planning and crafting. It was actually a shot in the dark, as neither of us knew whether anybody would ever pick up the magazine, nevermind buy it.

Today, four issues in, the hot coals at deadline time glow as fiercely as ever, but now we know who our readers are, and that is a comforting thought. They’re people who love life, who do things. People who take pride in their homes and their towns and their country. People who send us letters and post Facebook messages and call with suggestions and compliments and, sure, complaints too. Participants.

There’s another reason we’re thankful, and that’s for the figure below the red ABC logo on the bottom right of this page. The figure that tells us more than 35 000 people have enough faith in us to take R42 out their wallets. (And a special thanks to the 1 630 readers who have subscribed for a year, and those who didn’t give up, despite administrative hurdles and Post Office strikes, until their magazines finally arrived.) What have we learnt? Firstly, the platteland is a very special place in people’s hearts rather than a bunch of isolated villages far from anywhere. Our many city readers bear witness to that. Secondly, you don’t have to live commercially; just look at what plattelanders make themselves – honey, jam, cheese, soap, you name it. And thirdly, the stories in the platteland are good (and good enough) for a book as thick as the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Enjoy our fifth issue of Platteland, the holiday issue.