By this time I'd been on Starburst as Editor for a little over four years. In that time we went through several different logo designs, three or four art editors and two changes of management and office address. But the one thing that stayed fairly constant was the sales. We never set the world alight but we managed a fairly constant 20K, sometimes a little under sometimes a little over. By the end of my time as editor, we'd added more colour, glossier pages, a much slicker design style and some level of credibility with the UK film business.
In fact, within the British film biz, Starburst was seen as the best place to promote genre films. We'd been given access to the Walt Disney archives for our special issue on Disney, which was produced with the full cooperation of the film company and we'd staged screenings of major Hollywood movies exclusively for our readers, culminating in the packed and chaotic screening(s) of Blade Runner in 1982.

I got the chance to mingle with the famous. Over the years I met and interviewed Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carrie Fisher, John Milius, John Landis, Nigel Kneale, Anthony Daniels, Dario Argento and a host of others. But the reality of trying to produce a decent product in the face of strong opposition from those who should have been supporting me was a different matter altogether.
But finally, it came time, at the end of 1984, when I felt I had nothing left to give to Starburst. I'd written a book on movie star Harrison Ford and I believed the heady world of being a serious author beckoned.
I handed in my notice, politely declined management offers of more money to stay and set off into the big wide world to make my fortune.
It was probably one of the dumbest things I ever did in my life ...