Teresa Maughan, “T’zer” to readers, edited Your Sinclair for 28 issues, from issue 14 in February 1987 to issue 41 in May 1989. Those were the years the magazine sold best: by its own account, circulation peaked in 1988 at 80,368 copies a month. She had been there from the start, as production editor on the first issue, and the magazine’s rumour column, T’zers, carried her nickname.
Production editor to editor
Maughan’s name appears in Your Spectrum, the magazine Your Sinclair grew out of, in 1985: first among the contributors, then as production editor in the last issue, in December 1985. In that issue she reviewed Mosaic’s game of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole as a diary of her own, “The Secret Diary of Teresa Maughan Aged 23¾”, noting that the Ed had insisted she write it: “he said he’d give me £10 but then he’s always been a bit tight.”
Your Sinclair took over with the January 1986 issue, edited by Kevin Cox, with Maughan as production editor. From issue 3 she was deputy editor. She also started T’zers, a news column of rumours about games to come, whose name was both her nickname and a pun on “teasers”. Readers soon learnt who to blame. When one wrote in to issue 4 to complain that the magazine had called Cosmic Wartoad “Cosmic Wartones”, and demanded that it “sack Teresa Maughan”, the reply read: “You’re right. This was a serious dereliction of duty on T’zers part. Come here Maughan. You’re fired.”
Cox moved up, first to managing editor and later to publisher, and from issue 14 the masthead names Maughan as editor. The magazine’s farewell history in 1993 describes her taking “the Editor’s chair”, with Marcus Berkmann as deputy editor and Phil South as technical editor. Over the next two years her staff included Jackie Ryan as production editor, Duncan MacDonald as staff writer, Catherine Higgs as designer and then art editor, Ciaran Brennan and, by 1989, Matt Bielby as deputy editor, with Jonathan Davies and Mike Gerrard among the contributors.
The T’zer years
The farewell history remembered her era for free games and daft features: a free copy of Moley Christmas with the January 1988 issue, “Mike Gerrard’s Top Ten Jaffa Cakes”, free “Wagga Wagga” badges and Advanced Lawnmower Simulator. Its guide to “YS-speak” noted that “wagga wagga was in vogue during the T’zer years”. By the time she left the chair, the staff were credited on the masthead under nicknames, and hers was “Teresa ‘You’re Fired’ Maughan”.
Publishing
In summer 1989 Matt Bielby became editor. Maughan appears on the masthead as associate publisher from issue 43 and as publisher from issue 45 until issue 49. The 1993 history puts it more bluntly: she “had moved on to try to discover what it is that publishers actually do”. In 1990 Zero, a Dennis Publishing games magazine, introduced her in a staff feature as its publisher. Your Sinclair named her in 1993 among the “old Editors who since became publishers and more”.
Sources
- Your Spectrum issue 20, November 1985, and issue 21, December 1985: staff lists (contributor, then production editor); issue 21, “The Secret Diary of Teresa Maughan Aged 23¾”, review of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ (Mosaic, £9.95).
- Your Sinclair mastheads: issues 1–2 (production editor), 3–13 (deputy editor), 14–41 (editor), 43–44 (associate publisher) and 45–49 (publisher). Issue 14, February 1987, staff list with Maughan as editor and Kevin Cox as managing editor. Issue 41, May 1989: “Editor Teresa ‘You’re Fired’ Maughan”.
- Your Sinclair issue 1, January 1986: the T’zers rumour column. Issue 4, April 1986, letters: the Cosmic Wartoad complaint and reply. Wikipedia, “Your Sinclair” (web, secondary): the column was “named after and originally written by Teresa Maughan” and kept its name as a pun on “teasers”.
- Your Sinclair issue 93, September 1993: Jonathan Davies, “The YS Story” (her promotions, the 1988 staff, the highs of her era and the circulation of 80,368; her move into publishing), the “YS-speak” guide and the introduction naming “old Editors who since became publishers”.
- Zero issue 10, August 1990: staff feature introducing “Teresa ‘Fluffy’ Maughan” as publisher.