Lisa shared her day in cups of tea

THIS MONTH, WE GO BEHIND THE SCENES AND ASK OUR EDITOR, LISA SYKES ABOUT HER DAY IN CUPPAS

First cup of the day – what’s happening? Usually a bargaining session about who will put the kettle on! My partner David, who is the Publisher of Iceberg Press, likes coffee and I like a strong cup of Yorkshire Tea – I’m from Yorkshire – and an AeroPress coffee for him. What does editing The Simple Things involve? We start each month discussing things we’ve seen and heard or books that we’ve found, before commissioning people to write about the ideas and talking about photography. There’s lots of talking in the office – not always about work! Is The Simple Things basically run on tea? Yes! Virtually the first thing our art editor, Joe, says in the morning is, “Do you want a cuppa?”. We’ve a Brown Betty teapot for the big tea runs. People’s requirements are quite precise – everyone has their own mug, as well as their colour reference point: varying from ‘only just made an acquaintance with a teabag’ to ‘you could stand a spoon up in it’. And what’s for lunch? People often bring in tasty leftovers from home and, in winter, lots of us have homemade soup in flasks. If I walk out to get lunch, there are some nice coffee bars near the office and a market. When do you pack up tools for the day? The upside/downside of being an editor for something like The Simple Things is that you never really ever finish work. But, actually, it sometimes doesn’t really feel like work. How do you unwind? Anything other than tea? A G&T (ideally with crisps), or a large glass of wine! I have a little potter around my garden if it’s still light. But reading a book will always be my favourite thing to do in the evening. I’m partial to stories set in the 1930s and 1940s that feature headstrong women.