Our brand new www.ibizahistoryculture.com website was launched a week yesterday on Friday 23rd February and within the site we will publish IBIZA HISTORY CULTURE online each Saturday starting from 3rd March 2001.

This first edition will be brief, simply because, it's a new idea and when it comes down to ‘make-your-mind-up time' I'm a firm believer that if you don't start now while the concept is fresh then it all gets put back until whenever.

Furthermore, I'm still open-minded about the whole situation and I also feel honour-bound that things can change from week to week. Nevertheless, as the madhouse of our crazy summer season eventually comes to its senses and we move up to a higher gear we'll hopefully have a new far-reaching publication that reveals the behind-the-scenes of the best-kept secrets of Ibiza.

However, this venture will definitely not be a one-hit blunder because we aim to go flat-out for gold in each future edition where with hand-picked features we will offer a definitive guide for would-be folk who have an avid interest in this wonderful island of Ibiza.

Therefore, I'll start off our initial issue by explaining that I will endeavour to write a weekly "Commentary" on Ibiza. This will hopefully provide our readers with an insight to this special island by publishing fact-finding, good-humoured and piquant accounts of the everyday way of life in the countryside, the picture-postcards villages, the towns and also the asylum of the notorious nightlife here on Ibiza.

We shall also begin this first edition with the introductory of a regular weekly feature by Emily Kaufman. This talented young lady will give rhythm to words and write a weekly series of carefully researched, in-depth and interesting articles on the fascinating "History of Ibiza".

These amazing stories will explain in detail the numerous facts of culture on this island connected with the amazing centre of the world where good quality way of life and style began many centuries ago in the colourful and extraordinary Mediterranean.

Emily Kaufman is a native New Yorker, who left the ‘Big Apple' at six-years-of-age to move with her family to live and be raised in Pennsylvania. Emily's preliminary visit to Europe was to Madrid in 1980 where she came to study Spanish History at the University in the Spanish capital. Emily then by accident arrived here on the island of Ibiza in June 1984 where she's since been very happy to have lived and worked in peace and harmony.

Furthermore, Emily has recently published her first book "The History Buff's Guide to Ibiza" that covers the entire island's history from the Prehistoric Times of the Jurassic period through to the conquest of the island by the Catalan Conquest in 1235, which was essentially the start of modern times.

Round-up time, Peter Pan once said: "You can do anything if you wish hard enough" so treat yourself - it can help to banish the blues and also be an essential guide to a stress-free life.

Gary Hardy

garyhardy@ibizahistoryculture.com