Lest One Good Custom

So, this is the last Editorial I shall write as Editor of Seizure: hereafter, other Editors will impart their thoughts to you (assuming they write Editorials and you read them) and shape the future of the Journal. Something I started I now have to let go of and trust to others. Is that really possible? Of course it is. Seizure has come a long way in 13 years and I am proud to have been part of the development process, from the early days of having to write most of it and imploring friends to do likewise to the latter days when we have to turn down good papers because there just is not room for them. Assuming that an Editor is not deluding himself (I do wonder sometimes) just how much influence does he (or she) have over the content of a Journal? Initially , apart from that he or she writes most of it, he or she is trying to frame its identity: it must be sufficiently like other Journals that people will read it, but sufficiently unlike others that it makes its own identity and attracts new readers and new ideas. Although epilepsy is the commonest serious neurologi-cal disorder and has always been with us the epilepsy audience in Europe is an embarrassingly small one. It may well be that we medics have kept it artificially small and concentrated too much on certain aspects of epilepsy at the expense of others (and, therefore, ourselves). I certainly think so and have said as much in Editorials and been criticised for doing so. But I think Seizure has attracted a different audience (but not lost too many of the old) and has shown that nurses, psychologists and social scientists have a valid contribution to make to epilepsy and must continue to be both readers of and contributors to the journal as well as medical scientists and practitioners. We need the contribution of both if epilepsy knowledge and practice is to continue to develop. We must remain strong and united under the threats that we face from government and self serving politicians as we struggle to maintain epilepsy in its rightful place in the centre of medical and social attention. For, as we make our living, we should never forget that it is people with epilepsy that we represent and work for. I was privileged to be Editor of this …