From Khartoum with love

It’s not my habit to single out stories in go! in the sense of one being more special than another. You’re baking when you create a magazine, not cooking. When you cook, you can usually combine a bunch of good ingredients without necessarily following a recipe. A bit of this, a dash of that. You taste as you go along; you don’t measure quantities and you simmer it a bit longer if needed. If your instincts are sound, whatever you’ve cooked will be tasty by the time you dish it up. If not, you can always add some salt, tomato sauce or Mrs Balls to mask your mistakes. You don’t have those luxuries when you’re baking. Your recipe has to be foolproof. Your ingredients have to be measured accurately. The oven temperature must be spot on and you need to leave whatever you’re baking in there for the correct time. If everything in this process doesn’t go according to plan, you could end up with a flop. I’m not sharing a massive secret here, but every month we follow a recipe when we start “baking” our new magazine. Every ingredient has a role to play. The shortest story needs to be treated with the same care as the longest feature. Every ingredient plays its role so that the “cake” will be delicious. This is why I don’t single out specific stories. But sometimes I bend my own rules when a story rather unexpectedly makes a big impression. I’ve never had any desire to visit the capital of Sudan, but that changed when I read “Letter from Khartoum” (p 144) by Corinne Leukes. Now I want to taste zalabiya and fool and watch egrets fly over the confluence of the White and Blue Nile. I hope that this issue of go! is delicious, but allow me to put my own cherry on top – all the way from Khartoum.