We are very sad to say goodbye to Dr Lindsay Innes, OBE, FRSE who is retiring from the post of Book Review Editor that he has held for 15 years. During that time, Lindsay has worked tirelessly to ensure that regular readers of Experimental Agriculture have always been able to find out what books they should be reading, and why, by consulting the Journal's concise, incisive reviews by renowned experts from a bewildering range of fields. Lindsay, whose career description reads like a summary of all the top jobs in International Agricultural Research, always knew the best person to ask to review a book and the result was that we got the best reviews. We will miss him but we thank him sincerely for his work for the journal and we wish Lindsay the best of luck for the future.

Talking of reviews, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the people who have cheerfully taken on the task during 2012 of reviewing manuscripts for possible publication in the journal. Their names can be found in supplementary material online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0014479712001305. Reviewing is done entirely on a voluntary basis, as part of the quid pro quo of academic life. Although it is my impression that the time required to devote to reviewing manuscripts is becoming increasingly more difficult to justify to those who pay for research, I am repeatedly surprised by the high quality of the detailed comments submitted by reviewers and the willingness with which they offer their help. The journal could not continue without their help and I thank them all very much indeed.