The Spark magazine – Beccy Golding

I worked and wrote for The Spark magazine for twelve years, until it closed in July 2014.

What was The Spark?

In its time The Spark was a bit of a Bristol institution.

The magazine was an A3-sized, free, independent quarterly publication, set up by John Dawson in 1993. Content was green, eco-, holistic and alternative with an emphasis on positive change – on a personal, community and global level.

Based in Bristol, The Spark had a circulation of roughly a 50-mile radius of the city, including towns such as Bath, Frome, Stroud and Glastonbury, printed 30,000+ copies every quarter, and had a readership of 120,000+ per issue.

In the beginning The Spark’s coverage of organics, renewables, personal development and holistic health gave it a reputation as being full of ‘yoghurt-weaving, sandal-wearing, beardy-wierdies’ but over its 21 years of publishing many of the issues it covered became respected, accepted and mainstream. Readers enjoyed its irreverent, non-preachy, learning-together style.

The Spark went into liquidation in July 2014.

I had been Production Manager there for nearly 12 years. The team was all made redundant. I was very sad (I wrote this piece for Bristol Live Magazine).

The Spark was rekindled for a while as part of Bristol 24/7, then in 2019 it finally went out for good.

My role at The Spark

In 2003 I started a part-time admin job at The Spark.

Within a few months I was writer and editor of the family page, which I continued to do for eight years, and then took over the body and soul page for a further four years. I also wrote news, reviews and other articles.

In that time I also became production manager, overseeing the whole quarterly publishing cycle, including ad bookings, layout, sub editing and distribution. I also developed and implemented a brand new website with online bookings, The Sparkler newsletter, a readers panel, the annual Spark Awards and many other innovations.

The Spark was a heart-job for me and a little part of me is always there in our office on Colston Street, singing and dancing through deadlines, writing awful pun headlines as a team, committed to treating each other and all we worked with as humans, and eating together at the table for our generous, hearty and hilarious team lunches.