5 Years of Pellicle
Proud member of your favourite independent food and drinks mag.
This week, the magazine I assist in editing, Pellicle, turned five. We’re having a party to celebrate this milestone—come along—but this week, it was all about sharing our achievements. I think Pellicle has earned the right to be a little boastful.
Pellicle was the first publication to take my wine writing, and was therefore the first place I was ever paid to write about wine. Since then, I have helped create and then edited national wine subscription magazine Glug for almost two years, and still write for them regularly. I have written some of my favourite stories for Pellicle, and their open-mindedness about how far I can take an idea has allowed me to stretch creatively, write personally, and improve, improve, improve.
When Matthew, the owner and editor of Pellicle, asked me to join the team as an associate editor, at first I was concerned I wouldn’t have the capacity to give writers the attention they deserved—I was still running my bar Corto at the time. I shouldn’t have worried. It turns out editorial work is as close to a true calling for me as I think I can get. I absolutely love working with writers to polish their work into something they can be immensely proud of. Editing at Pellicle isn’t a simple glance-through, neither is it a strict adherence to brand guidelines. It’s a symbiotic relationship between writer and editor. A beautiful SCOBY that becomes a delicious literary kombucha, if you like. I feel immensely privileged that people bring their best work to us and I can read it before anyone else, and then have conversations that might take that work even further.
Pellicle is fully independent and can only pay contributors and our little team (Me, Matthew and Lily) through generous donations, Patreon subscriptions, and support from Pro Patreons and our sponsors.
Please, if you value what I do, what we do as Pellicle, and the writers, photographers, and illustrators who we publish—sign up as a Patreon. We are hoping to put up our rates for contributors soon, and we can only do that with the support of our Patreons!
Become a patron of the arts—be a Pellicle Patreon supporter
I believe that Pellicle is pushing food and drinks writing forward. I believe it’s a special and important publication, unique in its offering and essential if we want stories about food and drink that don’t follow the preceding narratives of traditional media. Pellicle gives a platform to new and newly-discovered writers when others rely on celebrities and critics for their coverage. Pellicle shares the unique and insightful opinions, experiences, and perspectives of writers, not just press releases or reviews of the products they consume.
I am incredibly proud to be able to call myself a member of the Pellicle crew, and I intend to spend the next five years working hard to make Pellicle as successful as it deserves to be—as a publisher, as a platform for talent, and as a space for creativity and thought provocation.
Thank you for getting us this far. Here’s to Pellicle, and all who made it.
Buy Tickets to My Tasting Session at the Pellicle Birthday Party
On Saturday 11 May, the Pellicle 5th Birthday Party will take place across the Piccadilly Trading Estate’s rich seam of brewery gold. I’m thrilled to be hosting a tasting session at Balance Brewery at 2.30pm on the day, pairing their delicious beers with vegan nibbles provided by their lovely selves.
Please come along: tickets are £20 and you will get four drinks and four amuse bouches included.
My Pellicle Pieces from the Past Five Years
Down by the River — The Hop Farmers of Spain's Órbigo Valley
If Trees Could Talk — Visiting Rivington Brewing Co. in Chorley, Lancashire
Bread For All, And Cider Too — Meeting Cider Activists Dick Withecombe and Cath Potter
Angels in the Sky — Getting Philosophical with Biodynamic Wine Pioneers Rudolf and Rita Trossen
With Provenance to Guide Us — Visiting The Moorcock Inn, West Yorkshire
You're Twistin' My Lemon, Man — A Very Mancunian Lime & Lemonade Crawl
On Whirring Wings — In Celebration of The Moorcock, 2018-2023
Anon, A Giant Monster Roams — Torrside Brewery in New Mills, Derbyshire
The Hollow and the Whole — Picking Apples at Nightingale Cider in Tenterden, Kent