It Gets Earlier Every Year

Hello! Welcome to Bow International 137! Thanks for all your fantastic feedback on The Arrow Issue, number 136. We really tried to include a full and open test of all the carbon arrows on the market, but in the end, it was too difficult and expensive (not to mention time-consuming) to get it done to a scientifically accurate and verifiable standard. I do frequently long to be a slightly bigger magazine with a lesslimited budget, and I really think the archery audience deserves this. It's still not completely off our radar; fully objective information is very hard to come by and would be really valuable to you, dear reader. So all I can say is: watch this space.

As so often, the vagaries of publishing means that our Christmas Gift Guide is coming rather early this year. Are you one of those people who gets annoyed that Christmas kind of takes over the last two months of the year, when it's really a festival that should only last a couple of days? Me too, frankly. (Bah! Humbug!) You try running a magazine with fixed delivery and printing dates. Of course, Christmas is important to retailers – around a quarter of all personal yearly expenditure is made in the last five weeks of the year (and indeed, without Christmas, the entire high-street retail economy would completely collapse). We've tried to select some products for all wallets which represent the best you can buy and would make a nice gift as well, including some things fresh out this year and a couple of interesting corners.

Elsewhere in the magazine we've got a fascinating piece by former Canadian recurve international (and enthusiastic World Archery commentator) Vanessa Lee, who has crossed over to the dark side. She's giving us the benefits of her experience learning compound and taking advice from some of the best in the business. And Bow's creator and former editor Richard White shares a few stories from how the magazine got started back in the mid-90s. Enjoy!

See you on the shooting line