Behind the byline: Martin Rickatson

Behind the byline is a BGAJ series that looks beyond the finished article, image or broadcast to the craft behind it. It gives members the chance to reflect on a piece of work they’re especially proud of — whether it was challenging to report, tricky to research or creatively demanding — and to share how it came about, how it was made, and what made it memorable. In this first instalment, we hear from a member who takes us behind one such piece of work and the decisions, experiences and relationships that shaped it.

Charting a century and a half of history

When much of your regular workload requires writing concise summaries of technical topics and event reports in three or four pages at most, the opportunity to tackle something much larger can be both a daunting prospect and a great opportunity to shake off the word count shackles and delve deeper into a subject. Arable and farm machinery features for weekly and monthly magazines are my stock-in-trade, and whilst I have contributed to half a dozen books over the years, and written a couple of small tomes, the chance to produce a volume charting the 150-year history of one of the agricultural equipment industry’s most prestigious organisations was one I hadn’t imagined would come my way.

When Ruth Bailey, director general and CEO of the Agricultural Engineers’ Association, commissioned me in mid-2024 to write a history of the AEA following kind recommendations from AEA members for whom I’d previously written books and brochures, much of the groundwork for the project had already been laid via two highly-respected previous volumes. The late Robert Trow-Smith had written ‘Power on the Land’ in 1975 to mark the AEA’s centenary, and the late Michael Williams’ book ‘Forward on the Land’, published in 2000, brought the Association’s history up to date at the turn of the millennium. I took large elements of these texts and edited them lightly, but then my real work began, to create a history from 2000-2025. During meetings at Samuelson House in Peterborough, home of the AEA, I interviewed a number of past and present AEA staff and members whose names will be familiar to fellow farm machinery writers – including Jake Vowles, Geoff Burgess, Duncan Russell and Chris Evans – and discovered some fantastic historic photos, including ones of the Royal Smithfield Show at London’s Earl’s Court, which many BGAJ members will recall, and which was organised by the AEA until the final show in 2004.

Books are not just different from regular magazine features in terms of their length, but also in the scope they offer to be involved with all stages of production. Freelance designer Richard Donald, a previous collaborator, then helped create, print and deliver a high-quality 100-page hardback, ‘Progress on the Land’, with photos through the ages concluding with pictures from the AEA 150th anniversary gala dinner, held in November at London’s Science Museum.

As a keen historian of farm machinery development, as well as a writer on contemporary agricultural equipment, it was a privilege to be asked to produce Progress on the Land. Books are long-term investments in terms of the time and commitment they require, but the reward in producing something enduring that will take pride of place in the offices of the AEA’s manufacturer and importer members for years to come is immeasurable.

---

If you’d like to share a piece of work for a future Behind the byline feature, we’d love to hear from you. Full details on how to submit, along with guidance on what to include, can be found on the Behind the byline post.

---