From little things: How it all started

Abstract

When Stephen Lock retired from editing the British Medical Journal in 1991 after a quarter of a century with the journal, I was just in my third year of editing Emergency Medicine Australasia (or Emergency Medicine as it was then). I remember thinking how long that period of Lock’s journal editing was, and realising how diametrically opposed were the requirements of being an emergency physician (rapid decision-making, short concentrated attention span, time periods measured in minutes to hours) and those of a journal editor (strategic long-range planning, judgements considered over months to years and time periods measured in years to decades). I was an unabashed fan of Stephen’s and of his successor Richard Smith, and the wonderful, eclectic, human medical journal they put together over all those years. Balancing journalism and science became their journal’s hallmark, presenting a human and sometimes humorous face to medicine, ensuring that art, music, history and personal reflection were given equal stand