ROLL out the red carpet. I’m back in the office again, after an horrendous accident which required plenty of hospital stitching and mending!

Sorry, folks, but my journalistic comeback won’t last for long! Because I am due to retire at the end of this month, hanging up my battered notebook and well-chewed pencil. It coincides with my glorious sixty years as a journalist.

It was a fall in the dark, at home, that had left my face looking as if I’d battled for twelve rounds with a giant earth-mover. I’d actually sprawled head-first onto a piece of sharp, low furniture.

But Whiston Hospital did a superb job, from that 3am emergency on that distressing morning.

My thanks go to Miss Feldberg, the slim surgeon who tackled the plastic surgery, and to all the staff and nurses who displayed such kindness to me at the hospital. Don’t let anyone again try to criticise Whiston Hopspital to me!

I had a surprise visit a few weeks after my fall when the para-medic, in whose ambulance I had been rushed to hospital, called at my home. He had been initially appalled by my facial injuries, but left In good heart when he saw how well I had responded to treatment.

(Though I still require some slight additional surgery soon.)

Before I finally clock off, may I thank the countless fans of the Whalley’s World page whose letters have supplied me with a stream of interesting tales and local history accounts, famous old yedscratters, the puns and jokes, and all the wartime experiences.

Plus golden memories of almost forgotten local heroes and villains.

It has made my job at the Star a pleasure over the past 35 years, 18 of them as editor.

Special thanks to contributors who kept me going with a stream of items. There are just too many individuals to mention personally.

And a thank-you to to skilled local artist Tommy Leonard. He sent me a little oil-painted picture of three people - a man and two women - sheltering under their brollies.

It was amusingly enttitled ‘Summer 2008’, reflecting the type of soggy weather we’d endured.

Now, I’m just hoping the sun beams out solidly in coming years, as I curl up in my retirement deck-chair ... sipping the red wine and fighting off all the wasps and mosquitoes!