About the editor
Andy Fraser
Back in the mid-noughties I was a (young!) middle-aged businessman trying to manage commercial stuff in the nuclear engineering industry, going to interesting places across Eastern Europe and Hartlepool*. Then one day I fell off the corporate ladder and into community publishing, swapping suits and my security pass for slippers and a copy of the Bristol A-Z.
Sixteen years on and I can genuinely say there’s not been a single day when I have regretted turning my back on the “corporate world”. Producing something from home that is well respected by advertisers and seemingly loved by local people gives me more job satisfaction than decommissioning an old Bulgarian nuclear power station ever could!
In case anyone is interested, I’ve lived in Bristol for over 30 years — 26 of them in BS9 — but my roots are in Dorset, so I’m a lifelong supporter of AFC Bournemouth through thin and thin. I like to sing (with the local Melody Makers Choir), quiz (compiling and competing), and cook (2018 WoT Village Show men’s chocolate hedgehog cake champion).
I share the house with my wonderfully supportive wife Ruth and our two lockdown kittens Otis and Spud, and have the best ever daughter who lives and works in London.
* Hartlepool is lovely, in case you’ve not been!
The magazines
Made in north west Bristol, for north west Bristol
Bristol Community Magazines publishes two free monthly magazines: The Bristol Nine, covering BS9, and The Bristol Six + Eight, covering BS6 and BS8. Together they reach more than 23,000 homes every month. Every page is put together locally, delivered locally, and read locally.