Well, yes that's me in my seasonal re-enacting gear. As is First Empire custom at this time of year can I wish you all a happy and peaceful Christmas. I must also thank all of the regular contributors for their sterling efforts, John Cook, Peter Hofschröer, Ian Barstow, John Walsh, David Commerford, Leon Partè for his background support, and all the others who have chipped in. I find it particularly gratifying that after all this time First Empire is still growing and I thank you all. With out the direct subscribers, this mag would be produced on three lengths of loo roll! Of course some wag will probably say that's where it ends up hanging anyway! - but I digress.

If you have some spare time on your hands over the holidays why not put pen/laser/ink jet/dot matrix to paper and get yourself published. I would like to see a return to the old days where we used to innovate wargame systems, research ideas and so forth. I still get the cry for more orders of battle and articles and I think that we shall try to increase this to three every issue, but I need the articles in the first place. Old Barstow is struggling these days and Leon Partè, although threatening a return has been plagued by his famous gout for most of the year so he will take a little time to get back into the flow.

As it is Christmas, might I suggest that you treat yourself to a copy of George Nafziger's new book Imperial Bayonets. We shall be carrying a review next issue, but it is an absolute mine of information and is highly readable - our own expert John Cook features amongst the credits of those consulted so with a First Empire man in tow it can't be bad can it?

New Web Site

The other bit of information that I would like to impart is that First Empire now has its own internet domain - www.firstempire.ltd.uk - at the moment the site is underdevelopment, however, by the time you read this the basic pages should be up and running - on there you will find all sorts of relevant First Empire information i.e. contributors notes, subscription details, things that we want to sell you, a page of links to other related sites and anything else that I consider pertinent, and eventually an index of the magazine for the last five years.

Salmon Running Wild

John Salmon, has come to the end of his tenure as the Napoleonic Association Secretary. I just want to take this opportunity to thank John for the excellent work that he has done over the last year, information has been supplied promptly and accurately and brought much to the post. I hope your successor is able to match your sobriety in the post

Adrian Proudfoot

Old Adey is under the weather at the moment and I'm sure that all of the Napoleonic Fraternity would wish this particular "Highlander" a prompt and speedy recovery. I have certainly missed his presence at events and I am sure so have many others. So best wishes Ade, get well soon mate.

That's it for this issue, so have a good one, and see you in 1997!