Happy New Year!

Top of my personal New Year’s Honours list is Indian Ink patron, Richard Morrison. Richard is a retired builder. He called me up just after Christmas as I was considering having a nap to say “Have you lined your garage and made that garden seat you’ve been talking about for a year?”. I mumbled something about January being a time for reflection rather than construction, when Richard cheerfully announced he’d be round first thing. True to his word, he arrived with tools, timber, and the sort of quiet competence that makes you realise how much of the world is held together by people like him.

In a few days my garage was lined, my long-promised garden seat existed in three dimensions, and I had been gently but firmly reminded that ideas are only as good as the hands willing to make them real.

It felt like the perfect way to start the year, and a perfect reminder of why Indian Ink’s patrons matter so much to us. They don’t just applaud from the dark or lend their names to programmes. They show up. They build things. They ask the awkward-but-loving question: “Have you actually done the thing you keep talking about?”

So as we step into another year of stories, rehearsals, touring logistics, and last minute problem-solving, I want to say thank you – to Richard, and all our patrons – for being the people who quietly make it possible. You keep us honest, you keep us going, and occasionally you line a garage and build a seat before we can talk ourselves out of it.

If that’s not a New Year’s honour, I don’t know what is.