It’s 100 and out as The Orkney View
editors call it a day
(From The Orcadian dated January 10, 2002)

The February/March 2002 edition of The Orkney View will also be the final one.

The joint editors of the publication since it first appeared in August 1985, Alastair and Anne Cormack of Papdale Close, Kirkwall, have decided to bow out while they are still enjoying producing the magazine, to spend more time on their other great loves – travelling and walking, while they are still fit enough to do so.

Issue Number 100, covering February/March 2002, is due out at the end of this month and features articles from a number of the original contributors to The Orkney View, people like Gregor Lamb and Sutherland Manson with illustrations and cartoons by Harald Nicolson and Ian MacInnes.

Alastair Cormack told The Orcadian that they now wanted to have a proper retirement: “I will be 68 this year and Anne is just a couple of years younger, so neither of us is getting any younger. We wanted to finish when we were still enjoying doing the work, and it is a fair bit of work. We spend around 100 hours putting together each edition, but you can’t plan your time. Time is spent speaking to someone down the street or on the phone. So it has been a labour of love for us. We wanted to do it and we’ve never got paid. Our payment has been all the friendships that we’ve made over the years.”

Anne Cormack explained the editorial policy of the magazine: “We’ve always tried to have a mixture of subjects in each edition, so that there’s something for everyone in the magazine. We’ve been lucky that we had enough material submitted by folk so that we were generally working two editions ahead. But latterly, we’ve had to return articles and photos, knowing that we were about to stop. We’ve been producing The Orkney View for more than 16 years, so obviously we will miss it a lot, but it’s time for a new stage in our lives.”

Mr James Miller from The Orcadian, who publish the magazine, said: “Alastair and Anne Cormack were always going to be a hard act to follow and I am disappointed we have not been able to continue The Orkney View after their retirement.

“Their hard work has been rewarded by a loyal readership and they can be proud of their achievements. Copies of the magazine will become prized possessions among Orcadians in the future.

“We have enjoyed a super partnership with the Cormacks, firstly as printers and then as publishers. A happy and prosperous retirement for them is richly deserved.”