Our Christmas double issue marks the completion of four years of The Dove. It seems only yesterday that Father Justin brushed aside feeble protests of ‘I can only do a little work for it . . .’. I said I could do some copy-editing and proofreading – so of course I ended up as Editor. But the reward, just announced, is that The Dove is the overall winner, out of no fewer than 890 entries, of the National Parish Magazine Awards 2012! Thank you for all the wonderful congratulatory messages.



Bruton’s Christmas Shopping evening takes place on 5 December – it’s always a great deal of fun, and solves most of your present-buying problems too. With refreshments and all kinds of stalls, it is taking place outside to a greater extent this year, and the High Street will have very restricted parking to allow people to wander freely about. So get there early!

The meaning and spirit of Christmas are celebrated by a host of church services (see pages 32–34), with carols at many venues. One of the best carol concerts will be that given by the Bruton Choral Society under their indefatigable director, Barbara Jenkinson, at Bruton School for Girls on 19 December.

Bruton Town website, www.brutontown.com, has been refreshed and updated – see page 15. Local businesses can add their details to it, and it’s hoped it will be very much more useful than it was. Let us know how you find it.

If you need to contact any of the committee the details are on the last (inside) page. Remember, the deadline for copy is the first of the month preceding month of publication. It does cause us problems if you are late with an entire article, although we can usually cope with minor last-minute amendments.

A very happy Christmas and New Year from all of us on the Dove committee. Elisabeth Balfour