Looking back over 100 issues of English Today, and forward at the prospects for English language museums.

‘ET's success’, said a young-looking Tom McArthur in his first editorial, ‘will depend on keeping one's balance and getting all the ingredients right’. A hundred issues later, we can say with some confidence that he certainly managed it. At the time, I don't think anyone knew exactly what all the ingredients were. Now, looking back over the coverage of those hundred issues, we have a pretty good idea. Who would have expected the journal to be so diverse? There are 18 themes identified in the Index to the first 60 issues, published in ET61. Take a look at them in the panel. It is the extraordinary range of the subject-matter, along with its copious and often quirky illustrations, both textual and pictorial, which has given the journal its identity and appeal. The models we looked at when planning the journal, such as History Today, seem staid by comparison.