TOPPING OUT
Long-standing SelfBuild & Design expert and reader favourite, Gerald Coles, gives his take on the magazine’s roots and how Build It embodies the same values
Selfbuild − later retitled SelfBuild & Design − was launched in a drizzly November in 1997, not the best time of year for starting a build but excellent for planning and dreaming. The Selfbuild dream started with Peter Johns, managing director of Waterways World, publisher of Britain’s best selling canal boat magazine. Peter saw room for a magazine for self builders in a market that was then dominated by Build It and by Individual Homes (the precursor of today’s Homebuilding & Renovating). Having just completed my first self build, I immediately applied to be editor of this new magazine − not, I hasten to add, with any expectations of success.