HERE is a famous old anecdote, told by Sir Terry Pratchett no less, about the Bucks Free Press and its legendary former editor Arthur Church.

It relates to the paper’s epic coverage of an Apollo space mission in the 1960s when the BFP used an amazing picture of the moon taken from orbit above it.

I’d heard this tale before and wondered if it was true, but research this week on the paper’s website showed me it really did happen.

Sir Terry, author of the Discworld books, was a Free Press reporter during the Arthur Church era. On Arthur’s death in 2001, he was asked to pen a tribute, and he gave a first-hand account of the day the editor was landed with the moon pictures.

“Possibly the people high up drew straws to see who would ring Arthur to tell him that he’d have to clear most of his front page,” said Terry.

“We watched as he took the call. His expression grew thunderous. After the call, he was silent for a while as he tried to come to terms with this. Then he brightened up and announced: ‘Well, the moon does shine on High Wycombe, after all’.

“Then we re-jigged the paper and sold a lot of extra copies next day. The words were remembered by all present.”

I therefore suggest Arthur Church’s wise words are also remembered by the correspondent who wrote in last week to say the Free Press, as a local paper, should concentrate on local issues, instead of climate change.

Because as old Arthur may well have pointed out: High Wycombe does have a climate, after all.