'Misogynist' NOUN A person who dislikes, despises, or is strongly prejudiced against women. Now, I remember the days when women in wargames were frowned upon, discouraged and god forbid, should they PLAY a 'proper' wargame, ridiculed. In the 80s I saw the sprouting of the first green shoots of what was in my opinion a betterment of the hobby, as a generation of women spurned traditional gender stereotyping, took an interest in the hobby (usually but not exclusively because a partner or family member was a gamer)  and got stuck in with a vengeance, bringing a whole new facet to the hobby. And thus it has been, with the daughters of those gamer couples (as my own daughter has done) making their mark on the hobby and adding more branches to the wargames family tree, which frankly at one time resembled a garden cane. And so this week I was affronted somewhat when my wife (a VERY tolerant and level headed woman indeed) remarked that she was pretty bl...

It occurred to me today that in 11 days time it will be 15 years, since Dungeons & Starships closed it's doors in Sheffield. D&S was a great place to work. My employer in the days before I took over as owner, was Chris Harvey who was the best boss I've ever known, bar none. The only person who came close was Jon Westley-Smith, also an employee of  Chris Harvey Games, and responsible back then for the warehouse - no mean feat.  They were great days, and I was impressed that I was simply trusted just to 'get the job done' and moreover 'had enough rope so that I could never hang myself'. What more could a product of the golden age of gaming ask for? But how did I get that wonderful job? Well... I was the primary care-giver after our daughter was born, and I did the odd bit of miniature painting here and there whilst my offspring took the afternoon nap that separated her AM and PM rampages.  I don’t recall how he located me, but o...

I have just been somewhat deep in thought, as to just how deeply my hobby has intertwined with my life thus far. On the day of my marriage, I kept a promise, made some years before to go into Games Workshop on my wedding day, alas, by then it was not the wondrous store of my 80s youth, but still, it was personally symbolic. On that same day, I purchased my first 'Paper Tiger' art book, 'Lightship' by Jim Burns, which to this day is on my shelves. As my daughter spent the first few days of her life being poked, checked and generally approved by midwives, I played a blinder of a game (15th Century Japanese vs Knights Of St John - My K.O.St.J won, hands down) with Andy Mackay, a stalwart of the early days of Games Workshop. Last year, as my Grandson made his early appearance, I sat painting at my desk for 26 hours straight. The first gift I gave my wife, was a 28mm ghost model and our first outing together, was a trip to Liverpool, cuddled up on a National...