Every so often you come across some great people and their stories when you are researching old games. Like I did earlier this year when a copy of a previously-unknown title turned up in the ZX Spectrum community. The Magician by Magick Word Software a.k.a. Sheffield-based magician Russell J. Hall was an old-fashioned text adventure published in 1984.
Not only was a brilliant to see that Russel was still around, but he was still trading from his magic shop in Sheffield, still using the same logo on the building.
The reason I’m posting about discovering the game now, is that Russell is about to close down his shop for good and retire. There’s a lovely little local radio piece appended to this BBC News article with Russell talking as much about the power of stories, as of magic, which I know will resonate with a lot of users of this forum.