Anyway, I hope you all won’t mind, but after seven and a half years of very hard work, I’ll be taking a break from Shut Up & Sit Down to focus more on writing, something I’ve not been able to pursue much for a while and which I miss terribly.

It’s not a decision I’ve arrived at either casually or quickly. Shut Up & Sit Down has been an enormous part of my life for a long time and and it has lead to all kinds of extraordinary opportunities, fantastic moments and wonderful surprises, as well as helped me meet countless wonderful people. Perhaps one of those people was you. Did we meet some time? Yeah, and I liked you.

This work has sometimes been very demanding, but I’m enormously proud of my contributions, from pushing hard for and then laying the foundations of a new (and very progressive) convention, to reviews written in rhyme, to videos filmed in weird locations or with gentle nods to Waiting for Godot. Shut Up & Sit Down has grown enormously, in both its scope and also as a business, and we’ve been able to enjoy all kinds of success together. I’m very gratified to have been a big part of that and I’d like to thank you all for building the extraordinary community that has grown around us. It’s something I care about very much and I’ll continue to be invested in this site, in all of you and in how terrific board games can be.

I can’t yet say what some of the projects I’ll be stepping away to work on are, but they involve writing, narrative, games design and video games, areas that I’ve wanted to return to for a while and which I’m always keen to explore more of. I’m very excited to try new things and to flex some old muscles that have gone limp, but there’s one more thing I want to say before I grab my bag and dash for the bus: Change is inevitable.

Shut Up & Sit Down has constantly changed over the years and will continue to do so, with this just being another example. It will keep growing and evolving and, as part of that, it will introduce new faces. I would like you to be very, very kind to anyone who follows me and to treat them as you would treat me. A new person coming into an established show and site like ours faces a big challenge, even with our hugely capable team supporting them, and sometimes audiences can be very resistant to change. Don’t be one of those people. Don’t demand things remain the same. Welcome the new and follow the two most important words of advice that have ever been given: Be kind.

Thank you for being such a wonderful audience over all these years and for sharing so much with us including so many personal stories, experiences and insights. If you’d like to get in touch with me about anything at all, be it personal or professional or anecdotal or antagonistic, please do! And keep an eye out for me, I’m going to be doing some interesting things.

I’ll see you around!