An award-winning editor will bring to an end 18 years with the same title next month to concentrate on his passion for buying and selling antique toys.

George Robinson, editor of the Worksop Guardian since 1992, has been trading in diecast models of cars and lorries for the past ten years with wife Karen, a former journalist, even setting up their own shop on eBay.

George, who turns 56 in July, told HTFP that the business has stayed buoyant throughout the recession and his online store George’s Good Stuff has continued to perform well.

His final day on 4 June will bring to an end a 37-year career in the East Midlands press which started with the Mansfield Chad in summer of 1973, where he rose to the rank of news editor, before joining the Mansfield Observer as editor and then the Guardian.

He told HTFP: “I will miss the camaraderie of the office – we have a great team of people – and the wit and banter that goes into journalism.

“There’s a lot of fun in journalism and the buzz of when a big stories breaks. I’ve had my fair share as editor and it’s time to make way for younger blood.

“I am lucky because I had a life plan to do something when I reached 55. The toy market has remained buoyant, vintage toys in particular.

“I’m not one for hanging around the garden all my life and I never thought I would be slogging it out as an editor until I was 65. I always wanted to take one last chance to do something else.”

Under his editorship, the Guardian has won several industry awards including best editorial team at the O2 Media Awards last year for its coverage of the Neil Entwistle murder trial in June 2008.

The Guardian sent chief reporter Debbie Lockett out to America to report first-hand from the trial which made headlines around the world.

George’s son, a sub-editor in Bristol, is also involved in the toy business which is likely to expand to sell figures as well as models and could see the launch of its own website in the future.

He will be marking his departure from the Johnston Press weekly by looking back over his 18-year tenure as editor and picking out some of the key moments and stories from his time in the chair.

Comments

Mark Potts-Pimperton (10/05/2010 09:48:20)
All the best George.
What do you call a toy business when it’s an oriental condiment that’s a bit more flat than it used to be?

Creosote Arthur (10/05/2010 10:19:20)
My overriding memory of this man is the lifts to Harworth during his many visits to the parish.
No many can say they’ve taken me as far, in a sense, and at the same time returned to find out why it had happened.
Sport was always a feature. There’s not many times that the input has had sport (or not!), and that’s something most can say well.
Only now, I think, can we look back and say: “Yes.” When we do, I think we’ll see.
Good luck to you, though, as I say, the young ones (and I still consider you thus) retiring doesn’t half take the shine off one’s own age!
Aw bless.
Creosote Arthur.

Creosote Arthur (10/05/2010 10:21:27)
Oh sorry, I was thinking of Mel Bradley.

AA Grundi (10/05/2010 10:40:19)
All the best for the future George, you still owe me for several columns though…
By the way Mark, it’s ‘toy fizzy-less’

RS (10/05/2010 10:46:58)
George,
En avant, mon brave!

AA Grundi (10/05/2010 10:51:34)
Schoolboy error, that should be ‘soy fizzy-less’…

Creosote Arthur (10/05/2010 11:06:18)
Can I order three packs of code 8876 A4?
Hello?
Hello?…

LS (10/05/2010 11:13:28)
Has anybody informed Greggs?
Good luck George!

Sandy Smith (10/05/2010 11:30:30)
What do you call toy business when it’s an ornamental fish that’s puckering up to Vernon Kay’s wife?

Glue the Gleaner (10/05/2010 11:42:11)
I’ve heard a lot about George over the years, but because I used to get to the Guardian office after 5.30pm to do my thang,I never actually saw him. He’d always long since sloped off by the time I got there.

Your fault (10/05/2010 16:11:21)
Used to work there, not heard of a George Robinson though.
No, seriously, good luck George – it was your fault.

BadlyDrawnMan (11/05/2010 16:56:55)
Can I have a pint of whatever these guys have been drinking?