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Having several issues ago announced that we would no longer be writing our own editorials, the editors’ (ultimately inevitable) failure to organise a replacement, combined with a marked lack of enthusiasm on the part of those people we invited to write on our behalf, has hastened our return to these pages It might have dawned on those we approached, as it long ago dawned on us, that writing editorials is dull and difficult   So, to what purpose should we put this page which remains, roughly nine hours before we go to press, accusingly blank? To proselytise here would be to preach – one hopes – to the converted Should we instead use the opportunity shamelessly to ask you for money? It would after all be opportune – in September we launch a crowdfunding campaign offering such incentives to donate as a night-time peregrination in the sole company of Will Self (expensive), limited edition, specially-commissioned art works by previous contributors to the magazine (quite expensive), a drink with Ned Beauman (competitively priced), a set of artists’ postcards (pocket money) and even the opportunity to meet the editors at a party (please form an orderly queue)   But no, it would be unbecoming of us We, the unpaid directors of a registered charity in the United Kingdom (number: 1148690) ‘specialising in artistically or educationally meritorious works by new or emerging artists and writers’, would never so shamelessly prey upon the kindness of our readers However loyal, big-hearted, munificent, tasteful and – may we say – well-dressed our readers might be Readers who are committed to supporting literature and the arts beyond the penalties of what we are now obliged to call ‘austerity’, readers who believe that a vibrant, progressive, polyvocal cultural milieu is essential to the wellbeing of a society, readers who understand the importance of paying writers for their work Readers who certainly don’t need to be told that taking out a subscription to a magazine supports its long-term survival by providing it with a reliable cash flow during a time in which newsstand sales are falling and the margins are increasingly tight,