I was interviewing Bill Collison earlier this week for the centre spread of the Lewes Handbook, our sister publication, which will be coming through your door this weekend, if you live in Lewes. Bill, of course, is the owner of Bill’s, the greengrocers-cafe-restaurant-cornershop in Cliffe which so characterises the independent creative personality of this town. I asked Bill if, after the success of his second outlet in Brighton, he was hoping to create an empire of Bill’s shops all over the country. “Sometimes I feel I want to open another shop,” he said. “But mostly I want to just continue making the ones I already have better.” And then he mentioned something that hit home. “I was worried that opening the shop in Brighton would dilute the strength of the one in Lewes. But I’ve made sure that that has never happened. Quite the opposite, it’s important to make it better and better. Nothing thrives if it doesn’t change and grow.” The VivaLewes Handbook was sent off to the printers on Wednesday morning; this edition of Viva Lewes is going live tonight. We’ve had to work bloody hard to get both publications out. But we have attempted to take Bill’s words into consideration. We assure you that we will make every effort to ensure that Vivalewes.com will not suffer because we are doing another publication, too. It’ll change, sure, but only because we agree with Bill’s words. Without change, nothing stays vibrant. Last week we received 2,496 unique hits, from different IP addresses. Word is getting out… Viva Lewes is getting more popular. Our first issue in January of this year got 36 hits. We’ve always appreciated your positive or negative feedback (info@vivalewes.com), and we’ve always taken it into account, so please keep it coming in, so we can change, so we can continue to thrive. Enjoy the issue…