IN my deluded mind, I sounded like Jeremy Paxman when I went on air as a special guest on a radio show last week.

But, sadly, when I played back the recording, I was more like Mr Bean.

My voice came across as inane and robotic during my interview on the ‘Watt Next’ show on Marlow FM.

But, I discovered something else more important. Presenter Dave Hampton asked me what my best moment was during my years as editor of the Bucks Free Press and Star.

And, for once, I was almost lost for words. Nothing sprang to mind even though I had 17 years of experiences to draw on. Perhaps I had underachieved, I thought for a moment.

But then I realised too much had happened to be able to choose a single defining moment.

The best I could come up with was something that happened the previous week. A reader of our website had emailed us to report difficulty in registering, and I sent him a personal email in response.

He replied saying he was surprised to hear directly from the editor. And then he told me he and his children were regular devotees of my columns.

“I have read them for years and so have my two sons who would regularly read them and then say, ‘Have you heard this, dad?’ before proceeding to read out most of the editorial to me while I was busy trying to cook their breakfast,” he said.

Now, like many of you, I have always wanted to write the great novel but never quite got round to it. So to have an accolade like this from a reader makes it all worthwhile.

Yes, I know the column is read by a fair few people, but sometimes when you write you do it in a vacuum and you tend to assume no one is paying much attention. To know I’ve been read as a fixture by a family each Saturday morning at breakfast makes me quite proud.

But is this small boast really my finest moment? I suppose the old saying is valid here: you are only as good as your last match, or your last front page or your last column.

Therefore, my proudest moment has to be the last major project I worked on. And that happens to be the wonderful ‘Bucks in Time’, a new nostalgia book produced by the Bucks Free Press.

I was asked to produce such a book by my bosses, and I laid the task at the door of our volunteer archivist Mike Dewey. Mike is the project manager of a marvellous website called Sharing Wycombe’s Old Photographs (SWOP).

A few years ago, we gave him desk space and a computer and allowed him and his colleagues to work from our offices to create a web archive of around 20,000 old images of Bucks. They did this brilliantly and the site is now the place to go if you want to find old pictures of the area.

But what about the readers who don’t have the internet, or those who perhaps prefer to have a real-life set of photos in their hand?

Bucks in Time hopefully has fulfilled that need. I’d never done a book before (the great novel just hasn’t worked out) so we met with many pitfalls on the way.

But finally last week, we printed off 1,000 first edition copies – and Mike and our staff have done a fine job.

There are scores of old photos showing people and places long gone from the first half of the 20th century. Mike themed it on transport, entertainment, shopping, world wars and education.

There are great images of old cinemas, ancient shops such as Murrays and Hearn’s in High Wycombe, and photos of street scenes from the turn of the last century.

It’s mainly a picture book, but there are some enthralling extended captions.

I admit now this is a shameless plug, but at £7.99 this book is well worth a read – and I’m buying a couple of copies myself.

Apart from the concept and the title and supplying the staff to produce it, I did very little else so don’t fret that it’s an enlarged version of this column.

But I’m still proud to have set the ball rolling on such a momentous book which will be available in the shops very soon and can be ordered online.

Whether I come across sounding like Paxman or Bean it doesn’t really matter actually. Bucks in Time is a legacy that will live long after I’m gone and will rank as an achievement I can really be proud of.

Bucks In Time is priced at £7.99. To buy a copy see our website bucksfreepress.

co.uk, contact 01494 755045 or visit our offices in Station Road, Loudwater.